shrow

English

Etymology 1

See shrew.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃɹəʊ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

shrow (plural shrows)

1. (obsolete) Alternative form of shrew
   • 1575, Thomas Churchyard, The Firste Parte of Churchyardes Chippes Contayning Twelue Seuerall Labours‎^[1], London: Thomas Marshe, page 49b:

     What Hawke can sit, in peace for carraine crow?
     What tongue can scape, the skolding of a shrow.

   • 1581, Arthur Hall, transl., Ten Books of Homers Iliades, translated out of French‎^[2], London: Ralph Newberie, Book 1, p. 12:

     For Neptune ioyned with Pallas, and Iuno Dame that shrowe,
     Had enterprisde to bind his hands, & down the heauens him throwe.

   • c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:

     Hortensio. Now go thy ways; thou hast tam’d a curst shrow.
     Lucentio. ’Tis a wonder, by your leave, she will be tam’d so.

   • 1689, Nathaniel Lee, The Princess of Cleve‎^[3], London, act II, scene 2, page 21:

     Any Man of Wit and Sense like us, Charms all Women, as one Key unlocks all Doors at Court—Nay, I’ll say a bold word for my self, Turn me to the sharpest Shrow that ever Bit or Scratch’d, if I do not make her feed out of my hand like a tame Pidgeon, may I be condemn’d to lye with my Wife.

Etymology 2

Back-formation from shroud

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃɹaʊ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Verb

shrow (third-person singular simple present shrows, present participle shrowing, simple past and past participle shrowed)

1. (obsolete) To hide or cover; to shroud.
   • c. 1830, The Parterre; Or, Universal Story-teller:

     Dense fogs followed; and early one morning, the city was shrowed in almost Egyptian darkness.

   • 1913, The Nineteenth Century and After - Volume 73, page 1281:

     Neither is there any doubt, but that many Rulers over Cities and countreys, are over ruled by their wives, but as these women knowe howe in time and place, to bee obedient to their husbands, so there are some such restive jades, that they will not at any time be commaunded, and by their importunities, exclamations, scolding, and brawling, continually withstande their husbands willes, and make a mock at them, playing with them a thousand shrowed prankes, which caused a certayne King to say, that they were very fooles that would followe their wife, running away from them.

   • 1985, H. C. Das, Cultural Development in Orissa, page 126:

     I may make it clear here that discussion on the important religious cults alongwith their attendant sects in a systematic manner is not an easy task due to the fact that systematic records have not yet been available, some of the religions have been shrowed in oblivion and many of the monuments have been damaged.

References

• “shrow”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.