[f. BOW sb.1 + NET: possibly the original form of the thing explained the name.]
1. A kind of trap used for lobsters, crayfish, etc., consisting now of a cylinder of wicker-work closed at one end and having a narrow, funnel-shaped entrance at the other; also called, a bow-weel.
a. 1000. Ælfric, Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 167. Nassa boʓenet, uel leap. Ibid., 181. Nassa, æwul, uel boʓanet.
1552. Huloet, Bowe nette or weele, nassa.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 37. They take them in bow-nets … whereinto they enter for the food, but being entrapped cannot go forth again.
1639. Horn & Robotham, Gate Lang. Unl., xxxviii. § 427. A Fisherman fisheth with a bownet or weel, in a river.
1883. G. C. Davies, Norfolk Broads, xix. 145. Bow-nets set in the runs … for tench and eels.
2. A kind of net attached to a bow or arch of wood or metal, used by fowlers.
1875. ‘Stonehenge,’ Brit. Sports, I. IV. i. § 4. 293. [Hawks] must be captured either by the bow-net or the hand-net.
