strew
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English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Middle English strewen, strawen, streowen, from Old English strewian, strēawian, strēowian (“to strew, scatter”), from Proto-West Germanic *strauwjan, from Proto-Germanic *strawjaną (“to strew”), from Proto-Indo-European *strew- (“to spread, scatter”).
Cognates
Pronunciation[edit]
Verb[edit]
strew (third-person singular simple present strews, present participle strewing, simple past strewed, past participle strewn or strewed)
- (dated, except strewn) To distribute objects or pieces of something over an area, especially in a random manner.
- to strew sand over a floor
- The files had been strewn all over the floor.
- c. 1591–1595, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act V, scene iii]:
- Sweet flower, with flowers thy bridal bed I strew.
- 1697, Virgil, “Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], OCLC 403869432:
- And strewed his mangled limbs about the field.
- 1880, [Benjamin Disraeli], Endymion […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Longmans, Green, and Co., OCLC 1079347024:
- On a principal table a desk was open and many papers strewn about.
- (archaic) To cover, or lie upon, by having been scattered.
- Leaves strewed the ground.
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, Prothalamion
- The snow which does the top of Pindus strew.
- 1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], (please specify |epistle=I to IV), London: Printed for J[ohn] Wilford, […], OCLC 960856019:
- Is thine alone the seed that strews the plain?
- (transitive, archaic) To spread abroad; to disseminate.
- c. 1599–1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act IV, scene v]:
- She may strew dangerous conjectures.
- This term needs a definition. Please help out and add a definition, then remove the text
{{rfdef}}
.- error-strewn
Synonyms[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
to distribute objects or pieces of something
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Anagrams[edit]
Middle English[edit]
Noun[edit]
strew
- Alternative form of straw
Yola[edit]
Noun[edit]
strew
- Alternative form of stre
References[edit]
- Jacob Poole (1867), William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, page 70
Categories:
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *strew-
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English 1-syllable words
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- Rhymes:English/uː
- Rhymes:English/uː/1 syllable
- English lemmas
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- Yola lemmas
- Yola nouns