English · Idiom Candidate

shot across the bow

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

A warning or threat, often to stop someone's behavior

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

cảnh báo hoặc đe dọa để ngừng hành vi

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: a cannon shot fired near a ship

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

The company's lawsuit was a shot across the bow to its competitors

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “shot across the bow” mean?

A warning or threat, often to stop someone's behavior Literally: a cannon shot fired near a ship

Is “shot across the bow” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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