Meaning of broad arrow | Babel Free

Definitions

1. a metal arrowhead, comprising a tang and two barbs meeting at a point; used traditionally in heraldry, and later by the British government to mark government property and convict uniforms.
2. An arrow fitted with this arrowhead.
   historical

Examples

“Their boats were manned by convicts, dressed in prison clothing, freely decorated with numbers and emblazoned all over with the ominous broad arrow.”

“It was his ill fate, to be a ſleepe, as old Abbas was going a hunting within the path, the King ſaw him not, but his pamperd horſe ſlartled at him, whereat immediatly the King ſent a broad Arrow into the poore mans heart, and ere all his followers had paſt, the man was kild a hundred times ouer, if ſo many Arrowes could haue forfeited ſo many liues, in imitating the King, as if the deed were good and commendable.”

“Broad arrows, frequently mentioned in Scotland as a blanche ferme, were fired from the short bow and had a swallow tail or broad head with two large barbs sloping backwards towards the shaft.”

“A hard yarn twangs the tension and fires its broad arrow out of a grim space of Old Australian smells: toejam, tomato sauce, semen and dead singlets the solitary have called peace but which is really an unsurrendered trench.”

CEFR level