Sow | Webster's Dictionary (1865)

Sow, n.

noun

n. [A-S. sugu, L. Ger. suge, sōge, O. D. sogh, souve, N. D. zog, zeug, O. H. Ger. sû, N. H. Ger. sau, Dan. so, Sw. sugga, so, Icel. syr, allied to Lat. sus; Skr. sū'kara.]

The female of the hog kind, or of swine.
A kind of insect; a sow-bug.
(Founding.) (a.) The runner or main channel from a smelting furnace to the pig-bed. (b.) The piece of metal cast in this channel.
(Mil.) A kind of covered shed, formerly used by besiegers in filling up and passing the ditch of a besieged place, sapping or mining the wall, and the like. Craig.

Sōw (sō), v. t.

verbtransitive

(sō), v. t. [imp. SOWED; p. p. SOWED, or SOWN; p. pr. & vb. n. SOWING.] [A-S. sāwan, Goth. saian, O. Sax. sāian, sēhan, O. H. Ger. sāhan, sājan, sāvan, sāan, N. H. Ger. sēien, L. Ger. saien, D. zaaijen, O. Fries. sêa, Icel. sá, sôa, Sw. så, Dan. saae, allied to Lat. serere, sevi.]

To scatter, as seed, upon the earth; to plant by strewing; hence, to plant in any way; as, to sow good seed.
To supply or stock with seed; to scatter seed upon; as, to sow ground or land; to sow ten or a hundred acres in a year.

The intellectual faculty is a goodly field, and it is the worst husbandry in the world to sow it with trifles. Hale. 3. To spread abroad; to cause to extend; to propagate. Born to afflict my Marcia’s family, And sow dissension in the hearts of brothers. Addison. 4. To scatter over; to besprinkle. He sowed with stars the heaven. Milton. Morn now sowed the earth with orient pearl. Milton.

Sōw, v. i.

verbintransitive

To scatter seed for growth and the production of a crop. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. Ps. cxxvi. 5.

Sōw, v. i.

verbintransitive

To sew. [Obs.] See Sew.