different between strew vs stree

English

Alternative forms

• strow, straw (dialectal)

Etymology

From Middle English strewen, strawen, streowen, from Old English strewian, str?awian, str?owian (“to strew, scatter”), from Proto-Germanic *strawjan? (“to strew”), from Proto-Indo-European *strew- (“to spread, scatter”). Cognate with Scots strow, straw (“to strew”), West Frisian streauwe (“to strew”), Dutch strooien (“to strew, scatter, sprinkle”), German streuen (“to strew, scatter”), Swedish strö (“to strew”), Icelandic strá (“to strew”), Norwegian Nynorsk strå (“to strew”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /st?u?/?
• (US) IPA^(key): /st?u/
• Rhymes: -u?

Verb

strew (third-person singular simple present strews, present participle strewing, simple past strewed, past participle strewn or strewed)

1. (archaic except strewn) To distribute objects or pieces of something over an area, especially in a random manner.

   to strew sand over a floor

   • c. 1595,, William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, act 5, scene 3

     Sweet flower, with flowers thy bridal bed I strew.

   • And strewed his mangled limbs about the field.

   • 1880, Benjamin Disraeli, Endymion

     On a principal table a desk was open and many papers strewn about.

2. (archaic except strewn) To cover, or lie upon, by having been scattered.

   Leaves strewed the ground.

   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, Prothalamion

     The snow which does the top of Pindus strew.
3. (transitive, archaic) To spread abroad; to disseminate.

Synonyms

• scatter, sprinkle

Derived terms

• bestrew
• strewable
• strewage
• strewments
• strewnfield

Related terms

• strain
• streusel

Translations

Anagrams

• Trews, trews, werst, wrest

Middle English

Noun

strew

1. Alternative form of straw

Yola

Noun

strew

1. Alternative form of stre

Middle English

Noun

stree

1. Alternative form of straw
   • Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde (II, 1744-5)

     In titering, and pursuite, and delayes,

     The folk devyne at wagginge of a stree