alow

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /əˈləʊ/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: (UK) -əʊ

Etymology 1

From Middle English alowe, equivalent to a- +‎ low.

Adverb

alow (not comparable)

1. (now chiefly Scotland) Low down. [from 14th c.]
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     Sometimes aloft he layd, sometimes alow, / Now here, now there, and oft him neare he mist […].

2. (nautical) Towards the lower part of a vessel; towards the lower rigging or the decks. [from 16th c.]
   • 1859, James Fenimore Cooper, The Red Rover: A Tale:

     I think you said something concerning the manner in which yonder ship has anchored, and of the condition they keep things alow and aloft?

   • 1924, Herman Melville, chapter 26, in Billy Budd‎^[1], London: Constable & Co.:

     Ay, Ay, Ay, all is up; and I must up too / Early in the morning, aloft from alow.

Preposition

alow

1. (Scotland) Below.

See also

• aloft

Etymology 2

a- +‎ low, from low (“flame”).

Adjective

alow (not comparable)

1. (Scotland) alight; ablaze

Anagrams

• AWOL, awol