different between shed vs sow

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: sh?d, IPA^(key): /??d/
• Rhymes: -?d

Etymology 1

From Middle English sheden, scheden, schoden, from Old English sc?adan, sc?dan (“to separate, divide, part, make a line of separation between; remove from association or companionship; distinguish, discriminate, decide, determine, appoint; shatter, shed; expound; decree; write down; differ”), from Proto-West Germanic *skaiþan, from Proto-Germanic *skaiþan? (compare West Frisian skiede, Dutch and German scheiden), from Proto-Indo-European *skeyt- (“to cut, part, divide, separate”), from *skey-.

See also Welsh chwydu (“to break open”), Lithuanian sk?sti (“to spread”), skíesti (“to separate”), Old Church Slavonic ?????? (c?diti, “to filter, strain”), Ancient Greek ????? (skhíz?, “to split”), Old Armenian ???? (c?tem, “to scratch”), Sanskrit ????? (cyáti, “he cuts off”)). Related to shoad, shit.

Verb

shed (third-person singular simple present sheds, present participle shedding, simple past and past participle shed or (nonstandard) shedded)

1. (transitive, obsolete, Britain, dialectal) To part, separate or divide.
   • c. 1380, Geoffrey Chaucer, Boece

     If there be any thing that knitteth himself to the ilk middle point [of a circle], it is constrained into simplicity (that is to say, into unmovablity), and it ceaseth to be shed and to flit diversely.

   • 1460–1500, The Poems of Robert Henryson

     The northern wind had shed the misty clouds from the sky;

   • 1635, "Sermon on Philippians III, 7, 8", in Select Practical Writings of David Dickson (1845), Volume 1, page 166 Internet Archive

     Lest […] ye shed with God.

2. (transitive, intransitive) To part with, separate from, leave off; cast off, let fall, be divested of.
   • 1707, John Mortimer, The whole Art of Husbandry

     White oats are apt to shed most as they lie, and black as they stand.

   • 2012 November 2, Ken Belson, "[1]," New York Times (retrieved 2 November 2012):

     She called on all the marathoners to go to Staten Island to help with the clean-up effort and to bring the clothes they would have shed at the start to shelters or other places where displaced people were in need.

3. (transitive, archaic) To pour; to make flow.
4. (transitive) To allow to flow or fall.

5. (transitive) To radiate, cast, give off (light); see also shed light on.

6. (obsolete, transitive) To pour forth, give off, impart.
7. (obsolete, intransitive) To fall in drops; to pour.

   • swich a reyn doun fro the welkne shadde

8. To sprinkle; to intersperse; to cover.
   • 1606, Ben Jonson, Hymenaei

     Her hair […] is shed with gray.

9. (weaving) To divide, as the warp threads, so as to form a shed, or passageway, for the shuttle.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English schede, schode, schad, shæd, from a combination of Old English sc?ada (“a parting of the hair, top of the head”) and Old English ?es??ad (“distinction, reason”).

Alternative forms

• shode (dialectal)
• shead, shede (obsolete)

Noun

shed (plural sheds)

2. (weaving) An area between upper and lower warp yarns through which the weft is woven.
3. (obsolete) A distinction or dividing-line.
4. (obsolete) A parting in the hair.
5. (obsolete) The top of the head.
6. (obsolete) An area of land as distinguished from those around it.
7. (physics) A unit of area equivalent to 10^-52 square meters

Derived terms

• countershed
• watershed

Translations

Etymology 3

Dialectal variant of a specialized use of shade.

Noun

shed (plural sheds)

1. A slight or temporary structure built to shade or shelter something; a structure usually open in front; an outbuilding; a hut.

   a wagon shed; a wood shed; a garden shed

2. A large temporary open structure for reception of goods.
3. (Britain, derogatory, informal) An automobile which is old, worn-out, slow, or otherwise of poor quality.
4. (Britain, rail transportation) A British Rail Class 66 locomotive.

Derived terms

Descendants

• ? Scottish Gaelic: seada
• ? Welsh: sièd

Translations

See also

Verb

shed (third-person singular simple present sheds, present participle shedding, simple past and past participle shedded)

1. To place or allocate a vehicle, such as a locomotive, in or to a depot or shed.

References

• “shed”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.

Anagrams

• edhs, heds

Aromanian

Alternative forms

• shedu

Etymology

From Latin sede?. Compare Romanian ?edea, ?ed.

Verb

shed (third-person singular present indicative shadi / shade, past participle shidzutã)

1. I sit.

Related terms

See also

• mi-ashedzu

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English sowe, from Old English sugu, from Proto-Germanic *sug? (compare West Frisian sûch, Dutch zeug, Low German Söög, German Sau, Swedish sugga, Norwegian sugge), from Proto-Indo-European *suh?kéh? (compare Welsh hwch (“pig”), Sanskrit ???? (s?kará, “swine, boar”)), from *suH- ‘pig’ (compare German Sau, Latin s?s, Tocharian B suwo, Ancient Greek ?? (hûs), Albanian thi, Avestan ????????? (h?, “boar”). See also swine.

Alternative forms

• (dial.): zew, soo

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sa?/
• Rhymes: -a?
• Homophone: sough

Noun

sow (plural sows or swine)

1. A female pig.
2. A female bear, she-bear.
3. A female guinea pig.
4. A channel that conducts molten metal to molds.
5. A mass of metal solidified in a mold.
   • 1957, H.R. Schubert, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry, p. 160:

     In England, it was generally termed a 'sow', if the weight was above 10 cwts., if below, it was termed a 'pig' from which the present term 'pig iron' is derived.

6. (derogatory, slang) A contemptible, often fat woman.
7. A sowbug.
8. (military) A kind of covered shed, formerly used by besiegers in filling up and passing the ditch of a besieged place, sapping and mining the wall, etc.

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

Usage notes

The plural form swine is now obsolete in this sense.

Synonyms

• (mass of metal solidified in a mold): ingot
• (contemptible woman): bitch, cow

Derived terms

• make a silk purse of a sow's ear

Translations

See also

• boar
• hog
• pig

Etymology 2

From Middle English sowen, from Old English s?wan, from Proto-Germanic *s?an?, from Proto-Indo-European *seh?-. Compare Dutch zaaien, German säen, Danish så, Norwegian Bokmål så.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /s??/
• (US) IPA^(key): /so?/
• Rhymes: -??
• Homophones: seau, sew, so, soe, soh

Verb

sow (third-person singular simple present sows, present participle sowing, simple past sowed, past participle sown or sowed)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To scatter, disperse, or plant (seeds).

   When I had sown the field, the day's work was over.

   As you sow, so shall you reap.

2. (figuratively) To spread abroad; to propagate.

   • And sow dissension in the hearts of brothers.
3. (figuratively) To scatter over; to besprinkle.
   • 1677, Matthew Hale, The Primitive Origination of Mankind, Considered and Examined According to the Light of Nature

     The intellectual faculty is a goodly field, […] and it is the worst husbandry in the world to sow it with trifles.

Synonyms

• plant, scatter

Derived terms

• besow
• intersow
• oversow
• reap what one sows
• sower
• sown
• sow one's wild oats
• sow the wind, reap the whirlwind

Translations

Anagrams

• OSW, OWS, W.O.s, WOs, wos

Middle English

Noun

sow

1. Alternative form of sowe