Mow

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /məʊ/

Definitions

1. To cut grasses or crops at their base using sharp tools or machinery
2. To trim or harvest vegetation such as grass or crops by using sharp tools or machinery, achieving a uniform height
3. To cut down grass or other plants close to the ground using tools or machines

Etymology: Before it meant cutting grass, "mow" was a pile or heap, and the two senses share no obvious link in English. The verb comes from Old English "māwan," which stood among a family of Germanic words for mowing that also reaches the Hittite word for early summer, literally "mowing time." The Latin "metō," meaning to harvest, and the Greek "amáō," meaning to mow, belong to the same ancient root, so the idea of cutting down a field's growth is one of the oldest verbs in the family. The noun is a different word. Old English "mūga" and "mūha" referred to a heap, and a related Norwegian word still means a crowd or flock. The verb "mow" and the noun "mowe" thus arrived in English by separate routes, and the noun's sense of a heap gives no hint of the grass-cutting that the verb later took on.

Synonyms: cut, trim, clipping, shear, slash

Antonyms: grow, cultivate, plant, sow, nurture