different between tow vs drug

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English towen, from Old English togian, from Proto-Germanic *tug?n? (Middle High German zogen, German ziehen, Dutch tijgen, Old Norse toga), from Proto-Indo-European *dewk-.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: t?, IPA^(key): /t??/
• (US) enPR: t?, IPA^(key): /to?/
• Rhymes: -??
• Homophone: toe

Verb

tow (third-person singular simple present tows, present participle towing, simple past and past participle towed)

1. (transitive) To pull something behind one using a line or chain; to haul.
2. (running, cycling, motor racing, etc.) To aid someone behind by shielding them from wind resistance.

Translations

Noun

tow (plural tows)

1. The act of towing and the condition of being towed.

   It isn't the car's battery; I think I need a tow.

2. Something, such as a tugboat, that tows.
3. Something, such as a barge, that is towed.
4. A rope or cable used in towing.
5. (motor racing) A speed increase given by driving in front of another car on a straight, which causes a slipstream for the car behind.

Translations

Derived terms

Etymology 2

From Middle English touw, from Old English tow- (“spinning”) (in compounds, e.g. towcræft, towh?s, towlic), from Proto-Germanic *taww?; compare Old Norse tó (“uncleansed wool”), Dutch touw (“rope”). Perhaps cognate with Old English tawian (“prepare for use”), Gothic ???????????????????????? (taujan, “do, make”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: t?, IPA^(key): /t??/, (rare) enPR: tou, IPA^(key): /ta?/
• (US) enPR: t?, IPA^(key): /to?/

Noun

tow (countable and uncountable, plural tows)

1. An untwisted bundle of fibers such as cellulose acetate, flax, hemp or jute.

   • And the strong shall be as tow, and the maker of it as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them.

   1. (specifically) The short, coarse, less desirable fibers separated by hackling from the finer longer fibers (line).

Derived terms

• tow haired
• towhead

Related terms

• taw

Synonyms

• hards, oakum

Translations

References

Anagrams

• OTW, WTO, owt, two, wot

Middle English

Alternative forms

• towe, tow?, tow?e, tough, towhe, togh, tawe, toow

Etymology

From Old English tow-; for more see English tow.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t?u?/
• Rhymes: -?u?

Noun

tow

1. Unprepared flax, especially used as a firestarter.
2. The fibrous matter of flax or a similar plant; (tow).
3. Oakum, hards; the rough portion of flax separated during hackling.

Descendants

• English: tow
• Scots: towe

References

• “tou, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-05-27.

English

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /d???/, [d????????]
• Rhymes: -??

Etymology 1

From Middle English drogge (“medicine”), from Middle French drogue (“cure, pharmaceutical product”), from Old French drogue, drocque (“tincture, pharmaceutical product”), from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German droge, as in droge vate (“dry vats, dry barrels”), mistaking droge for the contents, which were usually dried herbs, plants or wares. Droge comes from Middle Dutch dr?ghe (“dry”), from Old Dutch dr?gi (“dry”), from Proto-Germanic *draugiz (“dry, hard”). Cognate with English dry, Dutch droog (“dry”), German trocken (“dry”).

Noun

drug (plural drugs)

1. (pharmacology) A substance used to treat an illness, relieve a symptom, or modify a chemical process in the body for a specific purpose.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:pharmaceutical
2. A psychoactive substance, especially one which is illegal and addictive, ingested for recreational use, such as cocaine.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:recreational drug

   • 1971, Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Harper Perennial 2005 edition, page 3:

     We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.

   • March 1991, unknown student, "Antihero opinion", SPIN, page 70

     You have a twelve-year-old kid being told from the time he's like five years old that all drugs are bad, they're going to screw you up, don't try them. Just say no. Then they try pot.

   • 2005, Thomas Brent Andrews, The Pot Plan: Louie B. Stumblin and the War on Drugs, Chronic Discontent Books, ?ISBN, page 19

     The only thing working against the poor Drug Abuse Resistance Officer is high-school students. ... He'd offer his simple lesson: Drugs are bad, people who use drugs are bad, and abstinence is the only answer.

3. Anything, such as a substance, emotion, or action, to which one is addicted.
   • 2005, Jack Haas, Om, Baby!: a Pilgrimage to the Eternal Self, page 8

     Inspiration is my drug. Such things as spirituality, booze, travel, psychedelics, contemplation, music, dance, laughter, wilderness, and ribaldry — these have simply been the different forms of the drug of inspiration for which I have had great need […]

   • 2010, Kesha Rose Sebert (Ke$ha), with Pebe Sebert and Joshua Coleman (Ammo), Your Love is My Drug
4. Any commodity that lies on hand, or is not salable; an article of slow sale, or in no demand.
   • 1685, John Dryden, Albion and Albanius

     And virtue shall a drug become.

   • 1742, Henry Fielding, Joseph Andrews

     But sermons are mere drugs.

5. (Canada, US, informal) Short for drugstore.
   • 1980, Stephen King, The Mist

     “I’ll go this far,” I answered him. “We’ll try going over to the drug. You, me, Ollie if he wants to go, one or two others. Then we’ll talk it over again.”

Usage notes

• Adjectives often used with "drug": dangerous, illicit, illegal, psychoactive, generic, hard, veterinary, recreational

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

drug (third-person singular simple present drugs, present participle drugging, simple past and past participle drugged)

1. (transitive) To administer intoxicating drugs to, generally without the recipient's knowledge or consent.

2. (transitive) To add intoxicating drugs to with the intention of drugging someone.

3. (intransitive) To prescribe or administer drugs or medicines.
   • 1610, Ben Jonson, The Alchemist

     Past all the doses of your drugging doctors

Translations

Etymology 2

Germanic ablaut formation. If old, a doublet of drew, from Proto-Germanic *dr?g; compare Dutch droeg, German trug, Swedish drog. If secondary, probably formed by analogy with hang.

Verb

drug

1. (dialect) simple past tense and past participle of drag

   You look like someone drug you behind a horse for half a mile.

   • 1961 Kurt Vonnegut, Harrison Bergeron

     […] their faces were masked, so that no one, seeing a free and graceful gesture or a pretty face, would feel like something the cat drug in.

Usage notes

• Random House says that drug is "nonstandard" as the past tense of drag. Merriam-Webster once ruled that drug in this construction was "illiterate" but have since upgraded it to "dialect". The lexicographers of New World, American Heritage, and Oxford make no mention of this sense.

Etymology 3

Noun

drug (plural drugs)

1. (obsolete) A drudge.

Romanian

Etymology

From Serbo-Croatian drug.

Noun

drug m (plural drugi)

1. pole, stick

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *drug?, from Proto-Balto-Slavic *draugás, from Proto-Indo-European *d?rewg?-.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /drû??/

Noun

dr?g m (Cyrillic spelling ?????)

1. (Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro) friend
2. (dated) comrade (commonly used in parts of Former Yugoslavia among coworkers or friends)

Declension

Synonyms

• prijatelj
• drugar
• frend (slang, Croatia)

Derived terms

Related terms

• drugàrica
• drúga
• drùžica

Slovene

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /drú?k/

Adjective

dr?g (not comparable)

1. other, another, different

Inflection

See also

• drúgi

Further reading

• “drug”, in Slovarji Inštituta za slovenski jezik Frana Ramovša ZRC SAZU, portal Fran

Westrobothnian

Alternative forms

• dru
• dröuw
• dryg

Etymology

From Old Norse drjúgr, from Proto-Germanic *dreugaz.

Adjective

drug (comparative drugänä, superlative drugest)

1. lasting
2. haughty

Related terms

• dryj
• drögt
• drögnä