ablow

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From a- +‎ blow.

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

ablow (not comparable)

  1. (archaic, postpositive) Blossoming, blooming, in blossom.
    • 1867, Augusta Webster, “Lota”, in A Woman Sold and Other Poems, London, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 238:
      [...] The flower breaks from its sheath and is ablow / And gives its richest perfumes. [...]
    • 1891, Lizette Woodworth Reese, “Hallowmas” (poem), in A Handful of Lavender,[1] Houghton, Mifflin and Company, page 13:
      You know, the year's not always May
      Oh, once the lilacs were ablow !
    • 1989, Stephen L. Swynn, Garden Wisdom: Or, from One Generation to Another[2], Ayer Publishing, →ISBN, page 110:
      [...] against the green, yet, growing in tilled soil, grow stronger and taller than any daffodil can grow in turf : hundreds of them are ablow together, and the very robustness of their splendour [...]
  2. (dated, postpositive) Blowing or being blown; windy.

Usage notes[edit]

  • Like most adjectives formed from this sense of a-, ablow never serves as an attributive premodifier; one can say “the flowers were ablow”, “ablow, the flowers [...]”, and even “[...] the flowers ablow [...]”, but not *“[...] the ablow flowers”.

Anagrams[edit]

Scots[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

a- +‎ below, on analogy of above, afore, etc. See also aneth.

Alternative forms[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Preposition[edit]

ablow

  1. (often preceded by in) under, below
  2. On the lower side or part of; lower down in; further down from.

Adverb[edit]

ablow

  1. below, beneath, lower down.
References[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

a- +‎ blow

Adverb[edit]

ablow

  1. In full blow or blossom, abloom
References[edit]