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frow. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
frow, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
frow in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
frow you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology 1
From Middle Dutch vrouwe (“lady”), from Old Dutch *frōwa, from Proto-West Germanic *frauwjā, from Proto-Germanic *frawjǭ (“lady, mistress”), from Proto-Indo-European *prōw- (“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 frōwe (“woman”), Old English frēa (“lord, master, husband”). Doublet of frau, vrou, and vrouw.
Pronunciation
Noun
frow (plural frows)
- A woman; a wife, especially a Dutch or German one.
c. 1622, John Fletcher, Philip Massinger [et al.?], “Beggars Bush”, in Comedies and Tragedies , London: Humphrey Robinson, , and for Humphrey Moseley , published 1647, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):Mrs. Frances, a Frow, Daughter to Vanlock
- 1846, Captain Butler, A Glimpse of the Frontier, and a Gallop through the Cape Colony, W. Harrison Ainsworth (editor), The New Monthly Magazine and Humorist, 1846, Part 2, page 466,
- on our way we stopped at several houses, our companions having numerous acquaintances among the young frows, to flirt with after their ungainly fashion. Cape Dutch is not the language for love.
- (obsolete) A slovenly woman; a wench; a lusty woman.
- (obsolete) A big, fat woman; a slovenly, coarse, or untidy woman; a woman of low character.
Etymology 2
Pronunciation
Noun
frow (plural frows)
- Alternative spelling of froe (“cleaving tool”)
Etymology 3
From Middle English frow, frough, frogh, frouh, frouȝ (“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)
- (now chiefly dialectal) Brittle; tender; crisp
1664, J[ohn] E[velyn], Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-trees and the Propagation of Timber in His Majesties Dominions. , London: Jo Martyn, and Ja Allestry, printers to the Royal Society, , →OCLC:that which grows in gravel is subject to be frow, as they term it , and brittle
Derived terms
Anagrams
Sranan Tongo
Etymology
From Dutch vrouw.
Noun
frow
- woman
- Synonym: uma
- wife
- Synonym: wefi