different between narrow vs quilled

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?næ???/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?næ?o?/, /?n??o?/
• (Mary–marry–merry distinction)
• (Mary–marry–merry merger)
• Rhymes: -ær??

Etymology 1

From Middle English narow, narowe, narewe, narwe, naru, from Old English nearu (“narrow, strait, confined, constricted, not spacious, limited, petty; limited, poor, restricted; oppressive, causing anxiety (of that which restricts free action of body or mind), causing or accompanied by difficulty, hardship, oppressive; oppressed, not having free action; strict, severe”), from Proto-Germanic *narwaz (“constricted, narrow”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ner- (“to turn, bend, twist, constrict”). Cognate with Scots naro, narow, narrow (“narrow”), North Frisian naar, noar, noor (“narrow”), Saterland Frisian noar (“bleak, dismal, meager, ghastly, unwell”), Saterland Frisian Naarwe (“scar”), West Frisian near (“narrow”), Dutch naar (“dismal, bleak, ill, sick”), Low German naar (“dismal, ghastly”), German Narbe (“scar”), Norwegian norve (“a clip, staple”), Icelandic njörva- (“narrow-”, in compounds).

Adjective

narrow (comparative narrower, superlative narrowest)

1. Having a small width; not wide; having opposite edges or sides that are close, especially by comparison to length or depth.
2. Of little extent; very limited; circumscribed.
   • 1675, John Wilkins, Of the Principles and Duties of Natural Religion

     The Jews were but a small nation, and confined to a narrow compass in the world.

3. (figuratively) Restrictive; without flexibility or latitude.

4. Contracted; of limited scope; bigoted

5. Having a small margin or degree.
6. (dated) Limited as to means; straitened

   narrow circumstances

7. Parsimonious; niggardly; covetous; selfish.
   • a. 1719, George Smalridge, The Hopes of a Recompense from Men must not be our chief Aim in doing Good

     a very narrow […] and stinted charity

8. Scrutinizing in detail; close; accurate; exact.
9. (phonetics) Formed (as a vowel) by a close position of some part of the tongue in relation to the palate; or (according to Bell) by a tense condition of the pharynx; distinguished from wide.

Antonyms

• wide
• broad

Related terms

• narrowly
• narrowness

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

narrow (plural narrows)

1. (chiefly in the plural) A narrow passage, especially a contracted part of a stream, lake, or sea; a strait connecting two bodies of water.
   • 1858', William Gladstone, Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age

     Near the island lay on one side the jaws of a dangerous narrow.

Etymology 2

From Middle English narwen (“to narrow”); see there for more details, but ultimately derived from the noun.

Verb

narrow (third-person singular simple present narrows, present participle narrowing, simple past and past participle narrowed)

1. (transitive) To reduce in width or extent; to contract.

2. (intransitive) To get narrower.

3. (of a person or eyes) To partially lower one's eyelids in a way usually taken to suggest a defensive, aggressive or penetrating look.

4. (knitting) To contract the size of, as a stocking, by taking two stitches into one.
5. (transitive, programming) To convert to a data type that cannot hold as many distinct values.

   Antonym: widen

Synonyms

• taper

Derived terms

• narrow down
• renarrow

Translations

English

Etymology

quill +? -ed

Adjective

quilled (comparative more quilled, superlative most quilled)

1. Having quills or similar structures.
   • 1594, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2, Act III, Scene I:

     In Ireland have I seen this stubborn Cade

     Oppose himself against a troop of kerns,

     And fought so long till that his thighs with darts

     Were almost like a sharp-quill'd porpentine;

   • 2010, T. Lloyd Winetsky, Maria Juana's Gift: A Novel, Sunstone Press (2010), ?ISBN, page 148:

     He leaned down to inspect a white-quilled cactus, and then spotted a different kind with skinnier branches and only a few drab spines.

   • 2011, Alesa Corrin, Jonathan: The Griffin Prince, AuthorHouse (2011), ?ISBN, page 234:

     A quilled lionfish was face to face with a saurian moray eel, sizing it up before swimming on.

2. (of a flower) Having long, narrow petals or florets.
   • 1889, William Robinson, The English Flower Garden: Style, Position, And Arrangement, John Murray (1899), page 291:

     In the wild state the flowers are single—that is to say, only the outer florets are strap-shaped, and usually of a rosy-lilac tint, with yellowish disc florets; but under cultivation, all the florets have become ligulate or quilled […]

3. Created through the process of quilling.
4. (of fabric) Having small, rounded folds.
   • 1844, Louisa Stuart Costello, Memoirs of Eminent Englishwomen, Volume 1, R. Bentley (1844), page 169:

     Round the throat is a ruff of white muslin, quilled in large reverse plaids; […]

   • 1909, Henry C. Shelley, Inns and Taverns of Old London, L.C. Page and Company (1909):

     He insensibly began to alter his appearance; his cravat seemed quilled into a ruff, and his breeches swelled out into a farlingale. I now fancied him changing sexes; and as my eyes began to close in slumber, I imagined my fat landlord actually converted into as fat a landlady.

5. Decorated with quillwork.

Verb

quilled

1. simple past tense and past participle of quill