What does "bow out" mean?

Native speaker’s answer
Rebecca
To "bow out" means to quit or give up. You might hear this expression used especially often in the context of competitions or contests: when a player/team has bowed out, it means that they have quit or given up. Ex: The player bowed out of the match at the last minute. Ex: My good buddy and I liked the same girl, so I bowed out to save our friendship.