Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Water droplets condensed from the air, usually at night, onto cool surfaces.
- n. Something moist, fresh, pure, or renewing: "The timely dew of sleep/. . . inclines/Our eye-lids” ( John Milton).
- n. Moisture, as in the form of tears or perspiration, that appears in small drops.
- v. To wet with or as if with dew.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The aqueous vapor which is deposited from the atmosphere by condensation, especially during the night, in the form of small drops on the surface of bodies. The formation of dew is explained by the loss of heat by bodies on the earth's surface through radiation at night, by which means they and the air immediately about them are cooled below the dew-point (which see). Dew is thus deposited chiefly on bodies which are good radiators and poor conductors of heat, like grass; hence also it appears chiefly on calm and clear nights—that is, when the conditions are most favorable for radiation. It never appears on nights both cloudy and windy. In winter dew becomes hoar frost.
- n. Something likened to dew: As falling lightly, or as serving to refresh.
- n. As suggestive of the morning, and hence of freshness and youth.
- n. Moisture standing in little drops on anything.
- To wet with or as if with dew; moisten; bedew.
- An obsolete spelling of due.
Wiktionary
- n. uncountable moisture in the air that settles on plants, etc in the morning, resulting in drops.
- n. countable an instance of a such moisture settling on plants, etc.
- v. To wet with, or as if with, dew; to moisten.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Moisture from the atmosphere condensed by cool bodies upon their surfaces, particularly at night.
- n. Figuratively, anything which falls lightly and in a refreshing manner.
- n. An emblem of morning, or fresh vigor.
- v. To wet with dew or as with dew; to bedew; to moisten; as with dew.
- obsolete Same as due, or duty.
WordNet 3.0
- n. water that has condensed on a cool surface overnight from water vapor in the air
Etymologies
- From Middle English, from Old English dēaw ("dew"), from Proto-Germanic *dawwaz, *dawwan (“dew, moisture”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰew- (“to run, flow”). Cognate with North Frisian dauw ("dew"), Dutch dauw ("dew"), German Tau ("dew"), Danish dug ("dew"), Swedish dagg ("dew"), Icelandic dögg ("dew") and Faroese døgg ("dew"), Ancient Greek θέω (théō, "run", v), Persian دویدن (davidan, "run", v), Albanian dejë ("spot where the snow thaws"), Sanskrit धावति (dhāvati, "run, flow, move"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English deu, from Old English dēaw; see dheu-1 in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“This has not prevented many beauty products perpetuating ancient beliefs by using the word dew in their descriptions and labels.”
“The light vapour floating around the surface so cooled is condensed upon it, and there accumulates to form the little pearly globe which we call a dew-drop.”
“Christ fell to the ground as a corn of wheat (ch.xii. 24), and therefore was sown in a garden among the seeds, for his dew is as the dew of herbs, Isa. xxvi.”
“The said leaves, collected while the sunrise dew is upon them, as great as brought in to the cover troubled with fleas, will gather them thereunto, that being unexpected expel out, will rid the cover of those troublesome bedfellows.”
“Filed under Food · Tagged with mountain dew, pepsi”
“While he collected the morning dew from the lotus leaves, I would hunt for tea that was hidden deep inside the blossoms.”
Kien Nguyen talks about his grandfather, the inspiration for his first novel, The Tapestries
“Yes she does, right down to making sure he changes his soiled underwear and keeping his basement lair well stocked with mountain dew and cheetos.”
Think Progress » Mother of man arrested for threatening Pelosi blames ‘really radical’ Fox News.
“For, see you, it was our custom to lick the dew from the oar-blades, the gunwales, the thwarts, and the inside planking.”
“Yes | No | Report from huskerguy wrote 48 weeks 2 days ago mountain dew all the way on the lake”
“Yes | No | Report from Huntandtrap09 wrote 48 weeks 2 days ago me and my 2 buddies can go through 36 cans of mountain dew when we are out fishing on the lake.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘dew’.
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RELI - Genesis
Protagonists and relevant words in the Book of Creation (Source: King James Bible)
Laban, circumcise, beget, Esau, Rebekah, speckle, Sodom, Pharaoh, Canaanite, Canaan, Jacob, Lot and 1286 more...
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emordnilap
reviled, loot, no, ta, rat, part, pit, stop, spat, ten, mad, mart and 108 more...
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Which see
A list of words with definitions containing the phrase "which see."
moteur, fancy, grass, frog, Art, illusion, battleship, duck, beaver, Seder, clam, zythiaceæ and 118 more...
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RELI - words with Biblical connotations
Words in the Bible evoking biblical stories or with special spiritual meaning. Proper names have been reduced to the minimum.
ark, judgement, holy, saint, baptism, spirit, love, eternal, altar, balsam, covenant, flood and 1115 more...
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Figuratively
Words with definitions containing "figuratively."
spore, plunge, fulminate, rasp, hinge, niche, breathe, approach, hammer, rain, butcher, dazzle and 132 more...
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3-letter Scrabble Words
aah, aal, aas, aba, abo, abs, aby, ace, act, add, ado, ads and 995 more...
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3 Letter Words
A list of English words that are three letters long.
ace, act, ade, ado, add, ads, age, ago, ail, air, aim, all and 397 more...
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Hence
Words with definitions that have a "hence" in them.
hanger, Deet, tripe, spindlelegs, fiddle, store, pluck, snap, villain, link, comedy, particular and 410 more...
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Keyboard Hopscotch
You may start on any key. You may repeat a character, or travel to an adjacent key on the keyboard. On my qwerty keyboard, I may follow s with w, e, d, x, z, a, or (repeating) s. (If you use az...
assert, weeds, trews, treed, sewer, sewed, seeds, sawer, sawed, reeds, erred, asses and 65 more...
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What's That Pokémon Name?
Words used to create the names of Pokémon, which are usually portmanteaux.
bulb, dinosaur, ivy, venus, char, salamander, squirt, turtle, blast, tortoise, water, caterpillar and 525 more...
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Buttery
Words that make me feel cozy
Noodle, Nugget, Butter, Soft, Snug, Feather, Socks, Knit, Mug, Curl, Billow, Lounge and 315 more...
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cindywrites's Words
chiaroscuro, mollycoddle, feckless, evocative, provocative, invocation, beckon, allay, becalm, console, lull, soothe and 479 more...
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kalidas's Words
crepuscular, mellifluous, ephemeral, diaphanous, zeitgeist, geisterfahrer, infinite, eternal, idyllic, azure, reminiscent, oblivion and 521 more...
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ttobba's Words
graph, amore, labrador, sun, boreal, norsk, coffee, cafe, pekin, peking, train, rail and 97 more...
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The Most Beautiful Words in the Engli...
mellifluous, obscure, star-crossed, undulating, solstice, messiah, audacious, solace, twilight, wanderlust, lovelorn, byzantine and 219 more...
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NakedFringe's Words
masticate, chamber, orchid, mandolin, yellow, pomegranate, conundrum, paradox, gyrate, calamitous, opalescent, cacophony and 533 more...
Tweets
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