stow

• (General American) IPA^(key): /stoʊ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /stəʊ/

  Rhymes: -əʊ

• Homophone: store (in some accents)

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

From Middle English stowe, from Old English stōw (“place, location”), from Proto-West Germanic *stōu, from Proto-Germanic *stōō (“a place, stowage”), from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand, place, put”). Cognate with Old Frisian stō (“place”), Icelandic stó (“fireplace”), Dutch stouw (“place”), German Stau (“congestion”). See also -stow.

stow (plural stows)

1. (rare) A place, stead.

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:stow.

• moot-stow

From Middle English stowen, stawen, stewen, from Old English stōwian (“to hold back, restrain”), from Proto-Germanic *stōōną, *stōjaną (“to stow, dam up”), from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand, place”). Cognate with Dutch stuwen, stouwen (“to stow”), Low German stauen (“to blin, halt, hinder”), German stauen (“to halt, hem in, stow, pack”).

stow (third-person singular simple present stows, present participle stowing, simple past and past participle stowed) (transitive)

1. To put something away in a compact and tidy manner, in its proper place, or in a suitable place.
2. To store or pack something in a space-saving manner and over a long time.
   • 1922, James A. Cooper, Sheila of Big Wreck Cove:

     Yet everybody knows that a cargo properly stowed in a seaworthy craft reaches market in much the better condition than by rail, though perhaps it is some hours longer on the way.

3. To arrange, pack, or fill something tightly or closely.
4. To dispose of, lodge, or hide somebody somewhere.
   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 3:

     Ar. […] The Marriners all vnder hatches ſtowed, / Who, with a Charme ioynd to their ſuffred labour / I haue left aſleep : […]

5. (obsolete, slang, transitive) To cease; to stop doing something.
   • Bet the Coaley's Daughter (traditional song)

     But when I strove my flame to tell, / Says she, 'Come, stow that patter, / If you're a cove wot likes a gal, / Vy don't you stand some gatter?' / In course I instantly complied— / Two brimming quarts of porter, / With sev'ral goes of gin beside, / Drain'd Bet the Coaley's daughter.

   • 1883, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island:

     “Come, come,” said Silver; “stow this talk. He’s dead, and he don’t walk, that I know; leastways, he won’t walk by day, and you may lay to that. Care killed a cat. Fetch ahead for the doubloons.”

• bestow
• misstowed
• stowable
• stowage
• stow away
• stower
• stowing
• unstow

stow

1. (obsolete) A cry used by falconers to call their birds back down to hand.
   • c. 1503–1512, John Skelton, Ware the Hauke; republished in John Scattergood, editor, John Skelton: The Complete English Poems, 1983, →OCLC, page 63, lines 66, 69–74:

     His seconde hawke wexyd gery […]
     on the rode loft
     She perkyd her to rest.
     The fauconer then was prest,
     Came runnynge with a dow,
     And cryed, ‘Stow, stow, stow!’
     But she wold not bow.

• OTWs, SWOT, TOWs, Tows, ow'st, swot, tows, twos, wost, wots

From Proto-West Germanic *stōu, from Proto-Germanic *stōō (“a place, location, position”), from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand, place, put”).

• IPA^(key): /stoːw/

stōw f

1. a place

   Ne sċoldest þū gān tō swā frēcenre stōwe.

   You shouldn't have gone to such a dangerous place.

   • late 10th century, Ælfric, "Saint Maur, Abbot"

     ...and forġeaf sumne hām tō þǣre hālgan stōwe...

     ...and gave certain property to the holy place...

2. a place on the body
3. a place that is built; house, collection of houses, habitation, dwelling
4. a place, position, or spot in a series
5. a room, stead
6. a place or passage in a book

• eardungstōw (“dwelling place, tent”)

• Middle English: stowe, stow
  • Scots: stow
  • English: stow

stow

1. (transitive) To cut off; to crop.