furrow

Etymology

From Middle English furgh, forow, from Old English furh, from Proto-West Germanic *furh, from Proto-Germanic *furhs (compare Saterland Frisian Fuurge, Dutch voor, German Furche, Swedish fåra, Norwegian Bokmål fure), from Proto-Indo-European *perḱ- (“to dig”). Compare Welsh rhych (“furrow”), Latin porca (“ridge, balk”), Lithuanian prapar̃šas (“ditch”), Sanskrit पर्शान (párśāna, “chasm”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈfʌɹoʊ/, /ˈfɝoʊ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈfʌɹəʊ/

• Audio (US, without the hurry–furry merger):

  (file)

• Audio (US, hurry–furry merger):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌɹəʊ

Noun

furrow (plural furrows)

1. A trench cut in the soil, as when plowed in order to plant a crop.

   Don't walk across that deep furrow in the field.

   • 1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 217:

     The family feeling was intensified as we stopped to speak to mothers in the cottage gardens, or waved to distant tractors turning over chocolate-brown furrows and driven by 'my dad' or 'my Uncle Bob'.

2. Any trench, channel, or groove, as in wood or metal.
3. A deep wrinkle in the skin of the face, especially on the forehead.

   When she was tired, a deep furrow appeared on her forehead.

Verb

furrow (third-person singular simple present furrows, present participle furrowing, simple past and past participle furrowed)

1. (transitive) To cut one or more grooves in (the ground, etc.).

   Cart wheels can furrow roads.

   • 1847, Alfred Tennyson, “Part III”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 47:

     Morn in the white wake of the morning star / Came furrowing all the orient into gold.

2. (transitive) To wrinkle.
3. (transitive) To pull one's brows or eyebrows together due to concentration, worry, etc.

   Synonym: frown

   As she pored over the company's bewildering tax documents, she furrowed her brows and began to frown.

4. (intransitive) to become furrowed
   • 2016 February 20, “Obituary: Antonin Scalia: Always Right”, in The Economist‎:

     If you were bold enough to ask Antonin Scalia questions, you had to be precise. Otherwise the bushy black brows would furrow, the chin would crumple and the pudgy, puckish body would start to rock, eager to get at you.