• IPA: /baʊ/
• (Nigeria, Northern US, Southern US) IPA: /bə/
• (Canada) IPA: /bʌʊ/

bough (plural boughs)

1. A firm branch of a tree.

   When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981 ↗, Deuteronomy 24:20 ↗:

     When thou beatest thine oliue tree thou shalt not goe ouer the boughes againe: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherlesse, and for the widow.

   • 1819 May, John Keats, “Ode on a Grecian Urn”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: Printed [by Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], published 1820, OCLC 927360557 ↗, stanza 3, page 114 ↗:

     Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed / Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu; [...]

   • 2013, J. M. Coetzee, The Childhood of Jesus. Melbourne, Australia: The Text Publishing Company, chapter 18. p. 172:

     A pair of birds settle on the bough above them, murmuring together, ready to roost.

2. (obsolete, poetic) The gallows.

• French: branche
• German: Ast
• Italian: ramo
• Portuguese: galhada, galho
• Russian: сук
• Spanish: rama

1. Surname