tow
pronunciation
How to pronounce tow in British English:
UK [təʊ]
How to pronounce tow in American English:
US [toʊ]
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- Noun:
- the act of hauling something (as a vehicle) by means of a hitch or rope
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- Verb:
- drag behind
Word Origin
- tow
- tow: English has two words tow. The older, ‘pull’ [OE], came from a prehistoric Germanic *togōjan (source also of Norwegian toga ‘pull’). This was derived from the base *tog-, variants of which gave English team, tug, etc, and it goes back ultimately to the same Indo-European base as produced Latin dūcere ‘pull, lead’ (source of English conduct, duke, etc). Tow ‘flax or hemp fibre’ [14] was borrowed from Middle Low German touw.This probably went back to the prehistoric Germanic base *tōw-, *taw- ‘make, prepare’ (source also of English tool), in the specialized sense ‘make yarn from wool, spin’.=> conduct, duct, duke, educate, team, teem, tie, tug; tool
- tow (v.)
- "pull with a rope," Old English togian "to drag, pull," from Proto-Germanic *tugojanan (cognates: Old English teon "to draw," Old Frisian togia "to pull about," Old Norse toga, Old High German zogon, German ziehen "to draw, pull, drag"), from PIE root *deuk- "to pull, draw" (cognates: Latin ducere "to lead;" see duke (n.)). Related: Towed; towing.
- tow (n.1)
- "the coarse, broken fibers of flax, hemp, etc., separated from the finer parts," late 14c., probably from Old English tow- "spinning" (in towlic "fit for spinning," tow-hus "spinning-room"), perhaps cognate with Gothic taujan "to do, make," Middle Dutch touwen "to knit, weave," from Proto-Germanic *taw- "to manufacture" (see taw (v.)).
- tow (n.2)
- c. 1600, "rope used in towing," from tow (v.). Meaning "act or fact of being towed" is from 1620s.
Example
- 1. The bulls are then rescued by small boats who tow them to safety .
- 2. As this discovery clip shows , taylor and his team had to tie the bug to giant air bags , then tow it six miles from shore to the drop site .
- 3. Instead of using a tow bar attached to the aircraft 's nose wheel , taxibot employs a mechanism which automatically scoops the wheel up into a rotating turret .