arow

English

Alternative forms

• a-row

Etymology

a- +‎ row

Adverb

arow (not comparable)

1. In a row, line, or rank; successively.
   • c. 1589, William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors, Act V, Scene 1,^[1]

     O mistress, mistress, shift and save yourself!

     My master and his man are both broke loose,

     Beaten the maids a-row and bound the doctor

     Whose beard they have singed off with brands of fire

   • 1680, Joseph Moxon, Mechanick Exercises, or the Doctrine of Handy-Works, Number 10 “Of Turning,” ¶ 8, p. 184,^[2]

     And in the middle of the Breadth of the Cross-Greddle is made several holes all arow to receive the Iron Pin set upright in the Treddle.

   • 1716, John Dryden (editor), “A Description of the Tombs in Westminster-Abby” in The Third Part of Miscellany Poems, 4th edition, London: Jacob Tonson, p. 305,^[3]

     And now the Presses open stand

     And ye see them all arow,

     But never so more is said of these

     Than what is said below.

   • 1853, Elizabeth Gaskell, Cranford, Chapter 8,^[4]

     The chairs were all a-row against the walls, with the exception of four or five which stood in a circle round the fire.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “arow”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Anagrams

• WORA

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Middle English

Alternative forms

• arwe, arowe, aruwe, arew, arewe

Etymology

From Old English earh, ārwe, from Proto-Germanic *arhwō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈarɔu̯/, /ˈaːrɔu̯/, /ˈarwə/, /ˈaːrwə/, /ˈarɛu̯/

Noun

arow (plural arows or arewen)

1. An arrow (projectile weapon emitted from a bow)
2. (figurative) Anything felt to have a (metaphorically) piercing effect.

Descendants

• English: arrow
• Scots: arrae, arow, arowe

References

• “arwe (n.)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-05-04.