Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The place in a barn where hay, grain, or other feed is stored.
  • noun A stack of hay or other feed stored in a barn.
  • intransitive verb To cut down (grass or grain) with a scythe or a mechanical device.
  • intransitive verb To cut (grass or grain) from.
  • intransitive verb To cut down grass or other growth.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To put in a mow; lay, as hay or sheaves of grain, in a pile, heap, or mass in a barn: commonly with away.
  • To be able; may. See may.
  • To cut down (grass or grain) with a sharp implement; cut with a scythe or (in recent use) a mowing-machine; hence, to cut down in general.
  • To cut the grass from: as, to mow a meadow.
  • To cut down indiscriminately, or in great numbers or quantity.
  • To cut down grass or grain; practise mowing; use the scythe or (in modern use) mowing-machine.
  • noun A kinswoman; a sister-in-law.
  • To make months or grimaces; mock. Compare mop.
  • noun A grimace, especially an insulting one; a mock.
  • noun A jest; a joke: commonly in the plural.
  • noun A Chinese land-measure, equal to about one sixth of an English acre.
  • noun Also spelled mou.
  • noun A heap or pile of hay, or of sheaves of grain, deposited in a barn; also, in the west of England, a rick or stack of hay or grain.
  • noun The compartment in a barn where hay, sheaves of grain, etc., are stored.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To make mouths.
  • noun A wry face.
  • noun (Zoöl.) Same as mew, a gull.
  • verb obsolete, obsolete May; can.
  • intransitive verb To cut grass, etc., with a scythe, or with a machine; to cut grass for hay.
  • transitive verb To cut down, as grass, with a scythe or machine.
  • transitive verb To cut the grass from.
  • transitive verb To cut down; to cause to fall in rows or masses, as in mowing grass; -- with down.
  • transitive verb To lay, as hay or sheaves of grain, in a heap or mass in a barn; to pile and stow away.
  • noun A heap or mass of hay or of sheaves of grain stowed in a barn.
  • noun The place in a barn where hay or grain in the sheaf is stowed.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To cut something (especially grass or crops) down or knock down.
  • noun A stack of hay, corn, beans or a barn for the storage of hay, corn, beans.
  • verb agriculture To put into mows.
  • verb To make grimaces, mock.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb make a sad face and thrust out one's lower lip
  • verb cut with a blade or mower
  • noun a loft in a barn where hay is stored

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, stack of hay, from Old English mūga.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English mowen, from Old English māwan; see mē- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English mowen, from Old English māwan, from Proto-Germanic *mēanan (cf. Dutch maaien, German mähen, Danish meje), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂meh₁- ‘to mow, reap’ (cf. Hittite hamesha ‘spring/early summer’, literally, ‘mowing time’, Ancient Greek (poetic) amân)

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old English mūga. Cognate with Norwegian muge ("heap, crowd, flock").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English mowe, from Middle French moue ("lip, pout"), from Old French moe ("grimace"), from Frankish *mauwa (“pout, protruding lip”). Akin to Middle Dutch mouwe ("protruding lip"). Cognate to moue ("pout").

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Examples

  • Hey does your cousin mow from the left side of the feild or the right?

    warming-gate 2009

  • • 5:00 AM–7:00 AM, which is named Mao time pronounced mow, rhymes with now

    Tao I Dr. 2010

  • • 5:00 AM–7:00 AM, which is named Mao time pronounced mow, rhymes with now

    Tao I Dr. 2010

  • You can't call mow a coward now because I'm going to prison.

    CNN Transcript Aug 4, 2006 2006

  • Christopher says the most efficient way to mow is to choose a specific area and mow in a circular motion from the edges toward the center.

    The Seattle Times 2011

  • Christopher says the most efficient way to mow is to choose a specific area and mow in a circular motion from the edges toward the center.

    SFGate: Top News Stories Bill Daley 2011

  • Christopher says the most efficient way to mow is to choose a specific area and mow in a circular motion from the edges toward the center.

    SFGate: Top News Stories Bill Daley 2011

  • Christopher says the most efficient way to mow is to choose a specific area and mow in a circular motion from the edges toward the center.

    SFGate: Top News Stories Bill Daley 2011

  • Britain women are never suffered to mow, which is a most athletic and exhausting labor, nor to load a cart, nor to drive a plough or hold it.

    Biographical Essays Thomas De Quincey 1822

  • I fired up the weed whacker today too with hopes that I might be able to "mow" the tree patch near our house.

    Archive 2010-04-01 Gumbo Lily 2010

Comments

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  • MOW (inverted) = MOW

    February 16, 2012

  • Cut inches off yards? --NYT crossword clue

    February 16, 2012