sow

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“
Also next door, in France, in 1386, a sow was arraigned for having eaten a young child, and condemned to be hanged; to add to the disgrace of her punishment, she was dressed _in man's clothes_.

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Definitions (34)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (10)

  1. transitive verb To scatter (seed) over the ground for growing.
  2. transitive verb To spread (land, for example) with seed.
  3. transitive verb To strew something around or over (an area); distribute something over.
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Examples (50)

  • Also next door, in France, in 1386, a sow was arraigned for having eaten a young child, and condemned to be hanged; to add to the disgrace of her punishment, she was dressed in man's clothes About the same period rats were extremely mischievous, and in consequence were summoned to appear before my Lord the Bishop. —  Olla Podrida
  • You reap what other people sow, and you take up what others earn. —  Usury A Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View
  • Vanslyperken, who had started back, perceived that the sow was engaged with the very article in question; and finding it was a service of more danger than he had expected, picked up one or two large stones, and threw them at the animal to drive her away. —  Snarley-yow or The Dog Fiend
  • He had also divided the pigsty, so that the sow might be kept apart from the other pigs; and they expected very soon to have a litter of young pigs. —  The Children of the New Forest
  • The sow, attributing the cries of her darling to some torture inflicted by us, rushed to the drawers, making several savage attempts to rear up against them so that she could seize us by the legs. —  Paddy Finn
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

harvest ·  bushel ·  boar ·  thresh ·  cultivation ·  seed ·  swine ·  goat ·  hare

Used in the same contextWord Family

sow:   sowing ·  sowed ·  sown ·  sows
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (4)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Middle English sowen, from Old English sāwan; see sē- in Indo-European roots.
  2. Middle English, from Old English sugu and Old English sū; see sū- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English sowen, souwen, sawen (preterit sew, siew, seow, sewe, seu, plural sewen, seowen, past participle sowen, sowe, sawen), from Anglo-Saxon sāwan (preterit seów, past participle sāwen) = Old Saxon sāian, sēhan = OFries. sēa = Middle Dutch saeyen, Dutch zaaijen = Middle Low German Low German saien = Old High German sājan, sāwen, sāen, Middle High German sæjen, sæn, German säen = Icelandic sā = Swedish så = Danish saa = Gothic (Moesogothic) saian, sow; cf. Welsh hau, sow; Old Bulgarian sieti, sieyati = Servian siyati = Bohemian sítī = Russian sieyatǐ = Lithuanian seti = Lett, sēt = L. √ se, in serere (for *sesere, redupl. present, with simple perfect sevi, past participle satus), sow; from √ sa, sow, orig. prob. cast, cf. Sanskrit sasya, grain. Hence sower, seed, etc., and (from L.) semen, seminary, seminate, disseminate, etc., sative, sation, season, etc.
  2. from Middle English sowe, souwe, suwe, soghe, from Anglo-Saxon sugu, contracted sū, = Middle Dutch sogh, soegh, Dutch zog, zeug = Middle Low German soge, Low German suge, söge = Old High German Middle High German su, German sau = Icelandic sy¯r = Swedish sugga, so = Danish so = Welsh hwch (later English hog, q. v.) = Irish suig = Latin sus = Greek ὑς,σῦσ, σ2, a sow, swine, = Zend hu, a boar; prob. so called from its prolific nature, from √ su (Sanskrit √ s ū), generate, produce: see son. See swine, suine, soil, hog. In the sense of ‘a large mass of metal,’ see pig.
 

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