mow

See also: MOW and mów

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English mowen (participle mowen), from Old English māwan (past tense mēow, past participle māwen), from Proto-Germanic *mēaną (compare Dutch maaien, German mähen, Danish meje), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂meh₁- (“to mow, reap”); compare Hittite [script needed] (ḫamešḫa, “spring/early summer”, literally “mowing time”), Ancient Greek ἀμάω (amáō, “I mow”).

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /məʊ/
  • (US) IPA(key): /moʊ/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -əʊ

Verb

mow (third-person singular simple present mows, present participle mowing, simple past mowed, past participle mowed or mown)

  1. To cut something (especially grass or crops) down or knock down.
    He mowed the lawn.
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 2

Middle English mowe, from Middle French moue (“lip, pout”), borrowed from Old French moe (“grimace”), from Frankish *mauwa (“pout, protruding lip”), from Proto-Germanic *mawwō (“muff, sleeve”). Akin to Middle Dutch mouwe (“protruding lip”). Cognate to moue (“pout”).

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /məʊ/
  • (US) IPA(key): /moʊ/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -əʊ

Noun

mow (plural mows)

  1. (now only dialectal) A scornful grimace; a wry face. [from 14th c.]
Translations

Verb

mow (third-person singular simple present mows, present participle mowing, simple past and past participle mowed)

  1. To make grimaces, mock.
    • 1610, The Tempest, by Shakespeare, act 2 scene 2
      For every trifle are they set upon me: / Sometime like apes that mow and chatter at me, / And after bite me;
    • Tyndale
      Nodding, becking, and mowing.
Translations

Etymology 3

Old English mūga. Cognate with Norwegian muge (“heap, crowd, flock”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /maʊ̯/
  • Rhymes: -aʊ

Noun

mow (plural mows)

  1. (now regional) A stack of hay, corn, beans or a barn for the storage of hay, corn, beans.
  2. The place in a barn where hay or grain in the sheaf is stowed.
Translations

Verb

mow (third-person singular simple present mows, present participle mowing, simple past and past participle mowed)

  1. (agriculture) To put into mows.
Translations

Etymology 4

Noun

mow (plural mows)

  1. Alternative form of mew (a seagull)

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for mow in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)

See also

Anagrams

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