How to Use bough in a Sentence

bough

noun
  • Across almost three hundred poems, Cavendish speculated about how atoms joined to form everything in the world, from a fire’s stinging spark to the broad boughs of an oak tree.
    Merve Emre, The New Yorker, 29 Jan. 2024
  • Stars drop to the Earth like fruit falling from the boughs of a tree.
    Ross Andersen, The Atlantic, 10 Aug. 2017
  • This may sound silly, but many spruce trees have boughs to the ground.
    Jeff Lowenfels, Alaska Dispatch News, 22 Sep. 2017
  • Instead look through the trees that are open, in terms of both their boughs and their flaws.
    Popular Mechanics Editors, Popular Mechanics, 17 June 2016
  • Deck the halls with boughs of holly, Fa la la la la, la la la la.
    Sarah Kuta, The Know, 29 Nov. 2019
  • Trim an evergreen and dress the boughs down the center of the table.
    Debbie Arrington, sacbee, 10 Oct. 2017
  • This season, deck the halls with boughs of holly—and bouts of laughter!
    Jennifer Aldrich, Country Living, 27 Aug. 2019
  • The nightingale sang just before midnight, as if it were perched in the boughs of the dripping tree in the car park.
    Deborah Levy, The Cut, 1 July 2018
  • Dollops of snow balance on the tops scraggly oaks and boughs of pitch pine.
    Peter Marteka, courant.com, 6 Dec. 2019
  • Non-surfers could find shade or solitude under the trees’ boughs.
    Hillary Davis, Daily Pilot, 8 June 2017
  • In one photo, the fireplace mantle is lit up with twinkly lights and a thick swath of pine boughs.
    Natalia Senanayake, Peoplemag, 20 Nov. 2023
  • So, deck the halls with boughs of books this holiday season.
    John J. Kelly, Detroit Free Press, 7 Dec. 2019
  • Be sure to spend some time under the boughs of the huge pines and explore every nook and cranny of the small island.
    Peter Marteka, courant.com, 9 Oct. 2019
  • The sight of boughs of holly and string lights can warm you even in the coldest temperatures.
    Katrina Brown Hunt, Travel + Leisure, 22 Sep. 2023
  • Scotch pine gets knotty, so may have some curve to the stem, and the boughs of white pine aren’t quite as stiff as some of their counterparts.
    Laura Daily, Washington Post, 19 Nov. 2019
  • This shelter is a great addition to a tarp hammock or strung up over a springy bough bed.
    Popular Science, 28 May 2020
  • The white pines are huge with much of their boughs high up leaving a skeleton of a trunk and branches underneath.
    Peter Marteka, courant.com, 10 Sep. 2017
  • Mini trees and wreaths spruce up the Red Room of the White House, with a coordinating bough over the fireplace.
    Erica Gonzales, ELLE Decor, 30 Nov. 2016
  • Events and art exhibits often have been held under its boughs, the agency says.
    Alisha Ebrahimji, CNN, 11 Aug. 2023
  • To feed sparrows and finches, hang this Droll Yankees feeder up on a tree bough.
    Susan Cosier, WSJ, 29 July 2022
  • Then toss on a massive pile of live evergreen boughs and needles.
    Tim MacWelch, Popular Science, 26 Dec. 2019
  • Fill the boughs with small apples, kumquats, and vintage-style ornaments.
    Sarah Martens, Better Homes & Gardens, 10 Oct. 2023
  • Add some pizzazz to your garland display by allowing the ends of the bough to drape gracefully on the floor.
    Alyssa Gautieri, Good Housekeeping, 8 Nov. 2022
  • With black, soulful eyes that matched his coat, the creature had green boughs adorned with ornaments wrapped around his long, stiff neck.
    Silvia Foster-Frau, ExpressNews.com, 24 Dec. 2019
  • Stop by and ask for an armful of boughs to take home, then use a heavy-duty floral wire to fix them together.
    Mary Catherine McAnnally Scott, Southern Living, 8 Sep. 2023
  • The evergreen boughs will catch snowfall and insulate the patch of dirt from winter chills.
    Elizabeth Wolfe and Saeed Ahmed, CNN, 26 Dec. 2019
  • Orangutans have been known to repel insects by waving a bough.
    National Geographic, 12 Jan. 2023
  • Pine needles cover the trail and the wind whispers through the pine boughs and noisily scatters the oak leaves high above as rays of sunlight shine down.
    Peter Marteka, courant.com, 7 June 2019
  • Boughs from the top of that branch landed precariously on top of a neighbor’s younger tree.
    Dana Guzzetti, The Mercury News, 2 May 2017
  • The leafy bough was followed a millisecond later by a squirrel.
    John Kelly, Washington Post, 30 May 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'bough.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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