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dew

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: DEW and dew-

English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From Middle English dew, from Old English dēaw (“dew”), from Proto-West Germanic *dauw, from Proto-Germanic *dawwaz, *dawwą (“dew, moisture”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewh₂- (“smoke, haze”).

Cognate with German Tau, Dutch dauw and Afrikaans dou. Doublet of dag.

Noun

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Dew on a spider web

dew (countable and uncountable, plural dews)

  1. (uncountable) Any moisture from the atmosphere condensed by cool bodies upon their surfaces.
  3. (uncountable) Moisture in the air that settles on plants, etc in the morning or evening, resulting in drops.
    Synonym: (obsolete) rore
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Judges 6:36–40:
      And Gideon said vnto God, If thou wilt saue Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said,
      Beholde, I will put a fleece of wooll in the floore: and if the deaw be on the fleece onely, and it bee drie vpon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt saue Israel by my hande, as thou hast said.
      And it was so: for he rose vp early on the morrow, and thrust the fleece together, and wringed the deaw out of the fleece, a bowle full of water.
      And Gideon said vnto God, Let not thine anger be hote against me, and I will speake but this once: Let mee prooue, I pray thee, but this once with the fleece. Let it now be drie onely vpon the fleece, and vpon all the ground let there be deaw.
      And God did so that night: for it was drie vpon the fleece onely, and there was deaw on all the ground.
    • 1624, John Donne, “19. Prayer”, in Deuotions upon Emergent Occasions, and Seuerall Steps in My Sicknes: […], London: […] A[ugustine] M[atthews] for Thomas Iones, →OCLC, page 508:
      As therefore the morning devv, is a pavvne of the evenings fatneſſe, ſo, O Lord, let this daies comfort be the earneſt of to morrowes, […]
    • 2013, “We No Who U R”, in Warren Ellis, Nick Cave (lyrics), Push the Sky Away, performed by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds:
      Tree don't care what the little bird sings / We go down with the dew in the morning light / The tree don't know what the little bird brings / We go down with the dew in the morning
  4. (countable, but see usage notes) An instance of such moisture settling on plants, etc.
    There was a heavy dew this morning.
    • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter X, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 72:
      On their entrance, Aylmer was greeted by a new surprise—his daughter Lucy, whom he very naturally supposed was quietly in her bed, lay on the window-seat, the casement open, and herself asleep; but the traces of tears were upon her cheek, and her long fair hair loose, and yet saturated with the dews of the night.
  5. (figurative) Anything that falls lightly and in a refreshing manner.
  6. (figurative) An emblem of morning, or fresh vigour.
Usage notes
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  • Although the countable sense is still used, the plural form is now archaic or poetic only.
Derived terms
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Translations
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Etymology 2

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    From Middle English dewe, dewen, from Old English *dēawian, from Proto-West Germanic *dauwēn, from Proto-Germanic *dawwāną. Cognates include Saterland Frisian daue, German tauen and Dutch dauwen.

    Verb

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    dew (third-person singular simple present dews, present participle dewing, simple past and past participle dewed)

    1. (transitive) To wet with, or as if with, dew; to moisten.
      • 1887, Andrew B. Saxton, “Sunken Graves”, in The Century:
        The grasses grew / A little ranker since they dewed them so.
    2. (intransitive) To deposit dew.
      • 1831, The American Almanac and Repository of Useful Knowledge for ..., page 80:
        The former [substances extremely attentuated, or in a filamentous and downly state] collect dew copiously, while the latter [solids] so rarely indicate its presence, even when it is dewing freely on contiguous substances, that some observers have doubted whether it ever happened, and have been disposed to believe that they repel it.
      • 1929, Cecily Sidgwick, Six of Them, page 118:
        Yesterday she tied Kenneth to a tree and left him there for hours when it was dewing.
      • 2017, Sam Kean, Caesar's Last Breath: Decoding the Secrets of the Air Around Us:
        Withdraw heat from a gas, and it will dew into a liquid. Subtract more heat, and a solid forms.
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    Translations
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    Anagrams

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    Catalan

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    Etymology

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    From adeu.

    Interjection

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    dew

    1. (Internet slang) bye

    Cornish

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    Cornish numbers (edit)
    20
    [a], [b], [c] ←  1 2
    2     		3  → [a], [b]
        Cardinal (masculine): dew
        Cardinal (feminine): diw
        Ordinal: eyl, nessa
        Ordinal abbreviation: 2a
        Adverbial: diwweyth
        Multiplier: dewblek
        Fractional: hanter

    Etymology

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    From Proto-Brythonic *dow, from Proto-Celtic *duwo, from Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁.

    Pronunciation

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    Numeral

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    dew m (feminine form diw)

    1. two

    Derived terms

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    Mutation

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    Mutation of dew
    unmutated soft aspirate hard mixed mixed after 'th
    dew dhew unchanged tew tew tew

    Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Cornish.
    All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

    Middle English

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    Etymology 1

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    Inherited from Old English dēaw, from Proto-West Germanic *dauw, from Proto-Germanic *dawwaz, *dawwą.

    Alternative forms

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    Pronunciation

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    Noun

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    dew (plural dewes)

    1. Dew; moisture present on plants.
    2. (figurative) A rejuvenating substance.
    3. (rare) Sodden or water-soaked terrain.
    Derived terms
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    Descendants
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    • English: dew
    • Scots: dew, deow, dyow
    • Yola: dhew
    References
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    Etymology 2

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    Adjective

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    dew

    1. alternative form of dewe (“due”)

    Noun

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    dew

    1. alternative form of dewe (“due”)

    Welsh

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    Pronunciation

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    Adjective

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    dew

    1. soft mutation of tew

    Mutation

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    Mutated forms of tew
    radical soft nasal aspirate
    tew dew nhew thew

    Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Welsh.
    All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

    Zazaki

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    Etymology

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    Compare Persian ده (deh).

    Noun

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    dew f

    1. village

    Declension

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    declension of dew
    singular (tekın) plural (zafın)
    nominative (halo sade) dew dewi
    definite accusative (moreyen) dewa dewan
    dative (heteyen) dewe dewer
    locative (vinayen) dewi(y)de dewande
    ablative (abıryayen) dewra dewanra
    genitive (tamleme) dew(i) dew(y)an

    See also

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