grow
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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[edit] English
[edit] Etymology
From Middle English growen, from Old English grōwan (“to grow, increase, flourish, germinate”), from Proto-Germanic *grōanan (“to grow, grow green”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰreH₁- (“to grow, become green”). Cognate with Scots grow, grew (“to grow”), North Frisian grojen, growen (“to grow”), Dutch groeien (“to grow”), Middle High German grüejen (“to grow, grow green”), Danish gro (“to grow”), Norwegian gro (“to grow”), Swedish gro (“to germinate, grow, sprout”), Latin herba (“plant, herb, weed”), Swedish gröda (“crop”), North Frisian greyde (“growth, pasture”). Related to growth, grass, green.
[edit] Pronunciation
[edit] Verb
grow (third-person singular simple present grows, present participle growing, simple past grew, past participle grown)
- (intransitive) To become bigger.
- Children grow quickly.
- (intransitive) To appear or sprout.
- Flowers grew on the trees as summer approached.
- A long tail began to grow from his backside.
- (transitive) To cause or allow something to become bigger, especially cultivate plants.
- He grows peppers and squash each summer in his garden.
- Have you ever grown your hair before?
- (intransitive) To assume a condition or quality, usually a positive one.
- 2011 March 01, Peter Roff, “Another Foolish Move By Congress”, Fox News:
- The Bush administration – which sought to grow the number of fisheries managed under a program known as “catch shares”...
- The town grew smaller and smaller in the distance as we travelled.
- 2011 March 01, Peter Roff, “Another Foolish Move By Congress”, Fox News:
[edit] Usage notes
- Growed is a slang or dialect inflection for the simple past and past participle.
- The use of grow transitively, as a synonym for increase, with an object that is not growing by itself (i.e living), is a neologism and contrary to the historical use of the word, as shown in the quotation above. Historically, grow has only been used transitively with living things (grow corn and potatoes, grow breasts, grow a tail).
[edit] Antonyms
[edit] Derived terms
Terms derived from grow
[edit] Translations
(intransitive) to become bigger
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(intransitive) to appear or sprout
(transitive) to cause something to become bigger
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to assume a condition or quality
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked
[edit] References
- grow at OneLook Dictionary Search
