grow
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɡɹəʊ/
ipa: [ˈɡ̊ɹʷəʊ̯]
ipa: /ɡɹoʊ/
ipa: [ˈɡ̊ɻʷoʊ̯]
rhymes: -əʊ
Forms: form: grows
form: growing
form: grew
form: growed
form: grown
form: growed
Etymology: From Middle English growen, from Old English grōwan (“to grow, increase, flourish, germinate”), from Proto-West Germanic *grōan, from Proto-Germanic *grōaną (“to grow, grow green”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰreh₁- (“to grow, become green”).
Cognates
Cognate with Scots grow, grew (“to grow”), North Frisian grojen, growen (“to grow”), West Frisian groeie (“to grow”), Dutch groeien (“to grow”), German Low German grojen (“to green; thrive; take hold; flourish”), Middle High German grüejen (“to grow, grow green”), Danish gro (“to grow”), Norwegian gro (“to grow”), Swedish gro (“to germinate, grow, sprout”), Icelandic gróa (“to grow”), Latin herba (“plant, herb, weed”), Swedish gröda (“crop”), North Frisian greyde (“growth, pasture”). Related to growth, grass, green.
Senses: examples: text: Children grow quickly.
text: [...] but the dangers to trespassers, especially children, are growing, and a vigorous educational programme is urged.
ref: 1960 December, “Talking of trains: B.R. safety in 1959”, in Trains Illustrated, page 708:
glosses: To become larger, to increase in magnitude.
examples: text: Apples now grow all over the world.
synonyms: range
glosses: To undergo growth; to be present (somewhere)
raw_tags: of plants
examples: text: Leaf buds grew on the trees with the advance of spring.
text: A long tail began to grow from his backside.
glosses: To appear or sprout.
examples: text: As I grew throughout adolescence, I came to appreciate many things about human nature.
glosses: To develop, to mature.
examples: text: He grows peppers and squash each summer in his garden.
text: Have you ever grown your hair before?
text: The Bush administration – which sought to grow the number of fisheries managed under a program known as “catch shares”...
ref: 2011 March 1, Peter Roff, “Another Foolish Move By Congress”, in Fox News:
text: And — again to overgeneralize from my experience — users may not want a second Twitter either. I was a heavy Twitter user for over a decade. I loved it until I didn’t. I made connections, grew a following, floated ideas, had fun. But it also became a second, often angry, voice inside my head. Do I want to replace it with another one?
ref: 2023 July 10, James Poniewozik, “The Twitter Watch Party Is Over”, in The New York Times:
glosses: To cause or allow something to become bigger, especially to cultivate plants.
examples: text: The boy grew wise as he matured.
text: My cares grew less (and less) until they evanesced completely.
text: You have grown strong.
text: In fact she was so bus doing all the things that anyone might, who finds themselves alone in an empty house, that she did not notice at first when it began to turn dusk and the rooms to grow dim.
ref: 1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 18:
synonyms: become#Verb
get
wax
turn
go
glosses: To assume a condition or quality over time.
examples: text: Our knees shall kneel till to the ground they grow.
ref: 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:
glosses: To become attached or fixed; to adhere.
Derived terms: word: absence makes the heart grow fonder
word: Babygro
word: degrow
word: edgrow
word: ever-growing
word: fast-growing
word: forgrow
word: fungus-growing ant
word: great oaks from little acorns grow
word: growability
word: growable
word: grow a custom
word: grow a pair
word: grow apart
word: grow a set
word: grow a tail
word: grow away from
word: growbag
word: grow box
word: grow cold
word: growed
word: grower
word: growery
word: grow house
word: growing media
word: growing moon
word: growing pains
word: growing point
word: growing teratoma syndrome
word: grow into
word: grow light
word: grow like a weed
word: growmore
word: grown-up
word: grow on
word: grow op
word: grow-op
word: grow operation
word: grow out
word: grow out of
word: grow room
word: growsome
word: grow some balls
word: grow some skin
word: growstones
word: growth
word: grow up
word: hear the grass grow
word: ingrow
word: intergrow
word: kneegrow
word: laugh and grow fat
word: let the grass grow round one's feet
word: let the grass grow under one's feet
word: low-growing
word: mighty oaks from little acorns grow
word: misgrow
word: money doesn't grow on trees
word: not grow on trees
word: outgrow
word: overgrow
word: regrow
word: tall oaks from little acorns grow
word: the fox may grow grey but never good
word: undergrow
word: ungrow
word: upgrow
word: watch grass grow