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arrow

a long slender pointed weapon, usually having feathers fastened at the end as a balance, that is shot from a bow

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Arrow

a projectile fired from a bow, crossbow, or blowgun. The most common arrows used with a bow consist of the tip (head), shaft, and fletching. Shafts are made from different varieties of straight-grained wood and from reeds. In the Stone Age (Mesolithic and Neolithic) and Bronze Age, arrowheads were

Figure 1. Arrowheads: (1) and (2) Neolithic stone arrowheads, (3) Scythian bronze arrowhead, (4) Sarmatian iron arrowhead, (5) Kirghiz iron arrowhead, (6) through (11) Russian iron arrowheads

made of hard stone—primarily flint—or, less often, of bone. Bronze arrowheads became widespread only in the early Iron Age; at the end of the first millennium B.C. they were supplanted by iron arrowheads. Arrowheads differed greatly in shape depending on when they were fashioned and on their purpose (see Figure 1).

What does it mean when you dream about an arrow?

Arrows have a rich and complex set of meanings. A person can be described as “straight as an arrow.” Cupid is known for using his bow and arrow to shoot love into a lover’s heart. Arrows can represent conflict, war, and aggression. More positively, they are used symbolically in business to point in the direction of company goals. An arrow also has masculine, phallic connotations, so that shooting someone with an arrow in a dream can have sexual overtones. Less obviously, arrows have been associated with inspiration, truth, sudden illumination, and poetry.

Arrow

[′ar·ō]

(astronomy)

Sagitta

Arrow

(dreams)

The interpretation of this dream symbol may vary depending on whether the arrow was a tool or a weapon, or a signpointing direction. Dreaming about an actual arrow may have a range of meaning that includes swiftness, powerful and speedy intuition, mental alertness, precession, illuminating thoughts, and, last but not least, it could be a phallic symbol. To interpret the dream, consider its setting, context and emotional tone. Then, attempt to connect, and apply the suggested symbolism to your current situation or state of mind.

References in classic literature ?

When day broke, in the quick tropic grey that marks the leap from dark to sun, the Annos retreated, while Nalasu, withdrawn from the light into his house, still possessed eighty arrows, thanks to Jerry.

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"I should dearly love to let arrow fly alongside another man.

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But the blessed gods did not forget thee, O Menelaus, and Jove's daughter, driver of the spoil, was the first to stand before thee and ward off the piercing arrow. She turned it from his skin as a mother whisks a fly from off her child when it is sleeping sweetly; she guided it to the part where the golden buckles of the belt that passed over his double cuirass were fastened, so the arrow struck the belt that went tightly round him.

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Finally the entire expedition took refuge within the thatched huts--here, at least, they would be free from the arrows. Tarzan, from the tree above the village, had marked the hut into which the chief Arabs had gone, and, balancing himself upon an overhanging limb, he drove his heavy spear with all the force of his giant muscles through the thatched roof.

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He could kill him at his leisure later, when the bow and deadly arrows were laid aside.

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It is quite impossible for them to know him, and they walk along with him arm in arm, as if he, too, were a student like themselves; and then, unperceived, he thrusts an arrow to their bosom.

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The Sagoth had never before seen a bow and arrow, but of a sudden it must have swept over his dull intellect that the thing I held toward him was some sort of engine of destruction, for he too came to a halt, simultaneously swinging his hatchet for a throw.

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"Listen to me you suitors, who persist in abusing the hospitality of this house because its owner has been long absent, and without other pretext than that you want to marry me; this, then, being the prize that you are contending for, I will bring out the mighty bow of Ulysses, and whomsoever of you shall string it most easily and send his arrow through each one of twelve axes, him will I follow and quit this house of my lawful husband, so goodly, and so abounding in wealth.

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"The poisoned arrows are wrapped in the piece of oiled silk that was around the professor's missing map!"

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I will lay by my trusty bow and eke my arrows, and if thou darest abide my coming, I will go and cut a cudgel to test thy manhood withal."

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A dozen of them fell to the arrows of the defenders; but the majority reached the door.

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The bushman's keen ears warned him, and he sprang to his feet, bow and arrow in hand, the arrow fixed in the notch and the bow bending as he sprang.