Webster
✕

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Tow

Tow (tō), n. [OE. tow, AS. tow, akin to OD. touw, Icel. ? a tuft of wool for spinning; cf. E. taw, v.t.] The coarse and broken part of flax or hemp, separated from the finer part by the hatchel or swingle.

Tow, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Towed; p. pr. & vb. n. Towing.] [OE. towen, toȝen; akin to OFries. toga to pull about, OHG. zogōn, Icel. toga, AS. tohline a towline, and AS.teón to draw, p. p. getogen. See Tug] To draw or pull through the water, as a vessel of any kind, by means of a rope.

Tow (tō), n. [Cf. Icel. taug a rope, from the same root as E. tow, v. t.] 1. A rope by which anything is towed; a towline, or towrope.

2. The act of towing, or the state of being towed; —chiefly used in the phrase, to take in tow, that is to tow.

3. That which is towed, or drawn by a towline, as a barge, raft, collection of boats, ect.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.