different between frow vs arow

English

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch vrouwe (“lady”), from Old Dutch *fr?wa, from Proto-West Germanic [Term?], from Proto-Germanic *frawj? (“lady, mistress”), from Proto-Indo-European *pr?w- (“right; judge, master”).

Cognate with Dutch vrouw (“woman, wife, lady, mistress”), Low German frouw, frauw (“woman, wife, lady”), German Frau (“woman, wife, lady”), Swedish fru, Icelandic freyja (“lady, mistress”, in compounds), Old English fr?we (“woman”), Old English fr?a (“lord, master, husband”). Doublet of frau and vrouw.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /f?a?/

Noun

frow (plural frows)

1. A woman; a wife, especially a Dutch or German one.

   • Mrs. Frances, a Frow, Daughter to Vanlock

2. (obsolete) A slovenly woman; a wench; a lusty woman.
3. (obsolete) A big, fat woman; a slovenly, coarse, or untidy woman; a woman of low character.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Halliwell to this entry?)

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /f???/, /f?o?/

Noun

frow (plural frows)

1. Alternative spelling of froe (“cleaving tool”)

Etymology 3

From Middle English frow, frough, frogh, frouh, frou? (“brittle; tender; fickle; slack; loose”), cognate with Scots frooch, freuch (“dry and brittle”). Of obscure origin. Perhaps also related to Middle Dutch vro, vroo, Middle Low German vrô, German froh.

Adjective

frow (comparative more frow, superlative most frow)

1. (now chiefly dialectal) Brittle; tender; crisp

Derived terms

• frowish

Etymology 4

Compare frower.

Noun

frow (plural frows)

1. A cleaving tool with handle at right angles to the blade, for splitting cask staves and shingles from the block; a frower.

Anagrams

• rowf

English

Alternative forms

• a-row

Etymology

a- +? row

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???o?/
• Rhymes: -??

Adverb

arow (not comparable)

1. In a row, line, or rank; successively.
   • c. 1589, William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors, Act V, Scene 1,^[1]

     O mistress, mistress, shift and save yourself!

     My master and his man are both broke loose,

     Beaten the maids a-row and bound the doctor

     Whose beard they have singed off with brands of fire

   • 1680, Joseph Moxon, Mechanick Exercises, or the Doctrine of Handy-Works, Number 10 “Of Turning,” ¶ 8, p. 184,^[2]

     And in the middle of the Breadth of the Cross-Greddle is made several holes all arow to receive the Iron Pin set upright in the Treddle.

   • 1716, John Dryden (editor), “A Description of the Tombs in Westminster-Abby” in The Third Part of Miscellany Poems, 4th edition, London: Jacob Tonson, p. 305,^[3]

     And now the Presses open stand

     And ye see them all arow,

     But never so more is said of these

     Than what is said below.

   • 1853, Elizabeth Gaskell, Cranford, Chapter 8,^[4]

     The chairs were all a-row against the walls, with the exception of four or five which stood in a circle round the fire.

Anagrams

• WORA

Middle English

Alternative forms

• arwe, arowe, aruwe, arew, arewe

Etymology

From Old English earh, ?rwe, from Proto-Germanic *arhw?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ar?u?/, /?a?r?u?/, /?arw?/, /?a?rw?/, /?ar?u?/

Noun

arow (plural arows or arewen)

1. An arrow (projectile weapon emitted from a bow)
2. (figuratively) Anything felt to have a (metaphorically) piercing effect.

Descendants

• English: arrow
• Scots: arrae, arow, arowe

References

• “arwe, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-05-04.