Liliputin-4980

By attacking Pearl Harbour on December 7th, 1941, the Imperial Japan tried to shot across our Navy's bow, but eventually failed ... "
FDR


Liliputins. What, the heck, is this?
http://stihi.ru/2021/11/24/7101

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a shot across the someone s bow s
'A warning shot across the bow': Rudy Giuliani bankruptcy judge ominously forecasts even more 'draconian requests' as creditors go after Florida condo



a shot across the/someone's bow (s) idiom : a warning to not do something or to stop doing something The fine is a shot across the bow to an industry that thinks it can ignore the law.

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A shot across the bows
Other phrases about:
Sailing and the sea
What's the meaning of the phrase 'A shot across the bows'?
A warning shot, either real or metaphorical.

What's the origin of the phrase 'A shot across the bows'?
That most useful reference, Admiral William Smyth's The Sailor's Word-Book: an alphabetical digest of nautical terms, 1867, defines the bows thus:

"The fore-end of a ship or boat; being the rounding part of a vessel forward, beginning on both sides where the planks arch inwards, and terminating where they close, at the rabbet of the stem or prow, being larboard or starboard from that division".
"Shot Across the Bow" Idiom: Meaning and Usage in Sentences


Nautical phrasesLand-lubbers might find it easier to imagine bows as the 'shoulders' of a boat or ship. And if you don't know the difference between a boat and a ship there's also a land-lubbers guide to that - 'you can get a boat on a ship, but you can't get a ship on a boat'.

'A shot across the bows' derives from the naval practice of firing a cannon shot across the bows of an opponent's ship to show them that you are prepared to do battle. The first mention of it I can find in print is this piece from the Wisconsin Democrat, December 1939, reprinted from the UK paper The London Metropolitan:

"In a very brief space we neared our victim, a large merchantman, whose appearance promised at once an easy conquest and a rich booty. At a signal from Stamar, a shot was fired across her bows to bring her to. She immediately hoisted a white flag."

The more general figurative use of the expression, just to mean warning, is a 20th century innovation; for example, this piece from The Fresno Bee Republican, just prior to WWII, in August 1937:

"When the situation In Central Europe becomes threatening in the eyes of the great public, when press and official telegrams point to an immediate danger, the United States government will fire the third warning shot across the bows."


Gary Martin - the author of the phrases.org.uk website.
By Gary Martin

Gary Martin is a writer and researcher on the origins of phrases and the creator of the Phrase Finder website. Over the past 26 years more than 700 million of his pages have been downloaded by readers. He is one of the most popular and trusted sources of information on phrases and idioms.


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"Jemandem einen Schuss vor den Bug geben" ist eine Redewendung, die bedeutet, jemanden eindringlich zu warnen oder zurechtzuweisen, damit er sein damit zugleich beanstandetes Verhalten aendert oder beendet. Die Redewendung stammt aus der Kriegsfuehrung zur See, wo ein Warnschuss als „Schuss vor den Bug“ verwendet wird, um den Kapitaen des gewarnten zivilen oder militaerischen Schiffes zu bewegen, dem erteilten Halte- oder Abdrehbefehl nachzukommen.

Unseren Schuss vor den Bug auf Pearl Harbor fanden die Amis nicht zum Schiesen! ..."
Admiral
Yamamoto Isoroku