frow

English

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch vrouwe (“lady”), from Old Dutch *frōwa, from Proto-West Germanic *frauwjā, from Proto-Germanic *frawjǭ (“lady, mistress”), from Proto-Indo-European *prōw- (“right; judge, master”).

Cognate with Dutch vrouw (“woman, wife, lady, mistress”), Low German frouw, frauw (“woman, wife, lady”), German Frau (“woman, wife, lady”), Swedish fru, Icelandic freyja (“lady, mistress”, in compounds), Old English frōwe (“woman”), Old English frēa (“lord, master, husband”). Doublet of frau, vrou, and vrouw.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɹaʊ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aʊ

Noun

frow (plural frows)

1. A woman; a wife, especially a Dutch or German one.
   • c. 1622, John Fletcher, Philip Massinger [et al.?], “Beggars Bush”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

     Mrs. Frances, a Frow, Daughter to Vanlock

   • 1846, Captain Butler, A Glimpse of the Frontier, and a Gallop through the Cape Colony, W. Harrison Ainsworth (editor), The New Monthly Magazine and Humorist, 1846, Part 2, page 466,

     […] on our way we stopped at several houses, our companions having numerous acquaintances among the young frows, to flirt with after their ungainly fashion. Cape Dutch is not the language for love.

2. (obsolete) A slovenly woman; a wench; a lusty woman.
3. (obsolete) A big, fat woman; a slovenly, coarse, or untidy woman; a woman of low character.

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɹəʊ/, /fɹoʊ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊ, -oʊ

Noun

frow (plural frows)

1. Alternative spelling of froe (“cleaving tool”)

Etymology 3

From Middle English frow, frough, frogh, frouh, frouȝ (“brittle; tender; fickle; slack; loose”), cognate with Scots frooch, freuch (“dry and brittle”). Of obscure origin. Perhaps also related to Middle Dutch vro, vroo, Middle Low German vrô, German froh.

Adjective

frow (comparative more frow, superlative most frow)

1. (now chiefly dialectal) Brittle; tender; crisp
   • 1664, J[ohn] E[velyn], Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-trees and the Propagation of Timber in His Majesties Dominions. […], London: […] Jo[hn] Martyn, and Ja[mes] Allestry, printers to the Royal Society, […], →OCLC:

     that which grows in gravel is subject to be frow, as they term it , and brittle

Derived terms

• frowish

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 “frow”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Anagrams

• rowf

Sranan Tongo

Etymology

From Dutch vrouw.

Noun

frow

1. woman

   Synonym: uma

2. wife

   Synonym: wefi