farrow

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See also: Farrow

English

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Etymology

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From Middle English *farow, *fargh (found only in the plural faren), from Old English fearh (piglet), from Proto-West Germanic *farh, from Proto-Germanic *farhaz, from Proto-Indo-European *pórḱos, from *perḱ- (to dig).

See also Old High German farah, Middle Irish orc (piglet), Latin porcus, Proto-Slavic *porsę (pig, piglet), Lithuanian par̃šas, Kurdish purs. Doublet of pork.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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farrow (plural farrows)

  1. A litter of piglets.
    • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 15]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, [], →OCLC:
      Aha! I know you, gammer! Hamlet, revenge! The old sow that eats her farrow!
    • 1949, Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces:
      She is the womb and the tomb: the sow that eats her farrow.

Translations

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Verb

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farrow (third-person singular simple present farrows, present participle farrowing, simple past and past participle farrowed)

  1. To give birth to (a litter of piglets).

Derived terms

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Translations

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Adjective

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farrow (not comparable)

  1. (of cows) Not pregnant; not producing young (not calving) in a given season or year; barren.

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