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trow. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
trow, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
trow in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
trow you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Middle English trowen, trouwen, treuwen, treowen, trouen, from Old English trēowan, trīewan (“to trust”) and Old English trūwian (“to trust, confide”), from Proto-Germanic *trewwāną (“to trust”) and Proto-Germanic *trūwāną (“to trust”); both from Proto-Indo-European *drew- (“faithful, true”).
Akin to Scots trow, trew (“to believe, trust, confide in, prove”), Dutch trouwen (“to wed, marry”), German trauen (“to trust, marry”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål and Swedish tro (“to believe, think”), Norwegian Nynorsk tru (“to believe, think”), Icelandic trúa (“to trust, believe, believe in”).
Verb
trow (third-person singular simple present trows, present participle trowing, simple past and past participle trowed)
- (archaic or dialectal) To trust or believe.
- 1567, Arthur Golding: Ovid's Metamorphoses; Bk. 2 lines 527-9:
- ...Sure (he said) my wife shall never know
- Of this escape, and if she do, I know the worst I trow
- She can but chide, shall feare of chiding make me to forslow?
1880, Richard Francis Burton, Os Lusíadas, volume I, page 23:"And as their valour, so you trow, defied
on aspe'rous voyage cruel harm and sore,
so many changing skies their manhood tried,
such climes where storm-winds blow and billows roar[.]"
- (archaic or dialectal) To have confidence in, or to give credence to.
Noun
trow (usually uncountable, plural trows)
- (archaic or dialectal) Trust or faith.
Etymology 2
Noun
trow (countable and uncountable, plural trows)
- (dated, nautical, countable) Any of several flat-bottomed sailing boats used for fishing or for carrying bulk goods.
Etymology 3
From Swedish or Norwegian troll. Doublet of troll, a later learned borrowing.
Noun
trow (plural trows)
- (Orkney, Shetland, dated) A troll.
1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 261:The Trows are of a diminutive stature, and they are usually dressed in gay green garments.
Etymology 4
Shortened form of trousers.
Noun
trow (uncountable)
- (dated, uncountable) Used chiefly in the expression drop trow.
Anagrams
Middle English
Etymology 1
Noun
trow
- Alternative form of tre
Etymology 2
Noun
trow
- Alternative form of trogh