furrow
verbEtymology From Middle English furgh, forow, from Old English furh, from Proto-West Germanic *furh, from Proto-Germanic *furhs (compare Saterland Frisian Fuurge, Dutch voor, German Furche, Swedish fåra, Norwegian Bokmål fure), from Proto-Indo-European *perḱ- (“to dig”). Compare Welsh rhych (“furrow”), Latin porca (“ridge, balk”), Lithuanian prapar̃šas (“ditch”), Sanskrit पर्शान (párśāna, “chasm”).
1
To cut one or more grooves in (the ground, etc.).
- Cart wheels can furrow roads.
- Morn in the white wake of the morning star / Came furrowing all the orient into gold.1847, Alfred Tennyson, “Part III”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 47:
2
To wrinkle.
3
To pull one's brows or eyebrows together due to concentration, worry, etc.
- As she pored over the company's bewildering tax documents, she furrowed her brows, wrinkled her nose, and began to frown her befuddlement.
4
to become furrowed
- If you were bold enough to ask Antonin Scalia questions, you had to be precise. Otherwise the bushy black brows would furrow, the chin would crumple and the pudgy, puckish body would start to rock, eager to get at you.2016 February 20, “Obituary: Antonin Scalia: Always Right”, in The Economist:
- Derived terms
- backfurrow, furrowable, furrower, furrowing, underfurrow, unfurrow, unfurrowed