grow
verbUK /ˈɡɹəʊ/ · CA, US /ˈɡɹoʊ/
Etymology
From Middle English growen, from Old English grōwan (“to grow, increase, flourish, germinate”), from Proto-West Germanic *grōan, from Proto-Germanic *grōaną (“to grow, grow green”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰreh₁- (“to grow, become green”). Cognates Cognate with Dutch groeien (“to grow”), German Low German grojen (“to green; thrive; take hold; flourish”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish gro (“to grow”), Faroese grógva (“to grow”), Icelandic gróa (“to grow”); also Latin grāmen (“grass, turf; herb, plant”), herba (“grass, herbage; weeds; plant”), Ukrainian гря́ний (hrjányj, “green”). Related to growth, grass, green.
7 senses
Ergative To become larger, to increase in magnitude.
- Children grow quickly.
- [...] but the dangers to trespassers, especially children, are growing, and a vigorous educational programme is urged.1960 December, “Talking of trains: B.R. safety in 1959”, in Trains Illustrated, page 708:
Ergative, Of plants To undergo growth; to be present (somewhere)
- Apples now grow all over the world.
To appear or sprout.
- Leaf buds grew on the trees with the advance of spring.
- A long tail began to grow from his backside.
To develop, to mature.
- As I grew throughout adolescence, I came to appreciate many things about human nature.
To cause or allow something to become bigger, especially to cultivate plants.
- He grows peppers and squash each summer in his garden.
- Have you ever grown your hair before?
2 more examples
- The Bush administration – which sought to grow the number of fisheries managed under a program known as “catch shares”...2011 March 1, Peter Roff, “Another Foolish Move By Congress”, in Fox News:
- And — again to overgeneralize from my experience — users may not want a second Twitter either. I was a heavy Twitter user for over a decade. I loved it until I didn’t. I made connections, grew a following, floated ideas, had fun. But it also became a second, often angry, voice inside my head. Do I want to replace it with another one?2023 July 10, James Poniewozik, “The Twitter Watch Party Is Over”, in The New York Times:
To assume a condition or quality over time.
- Near-synonyms: become, get, go, turn, come, fall, wax
- The boy grew wise as he matured.
3 more examples
- My cares grew less (and less) until they evanesced completely.
- You have grown strong.
- In fact she was so bus doing all the things that anyone might, who finds themselves alone in an empty house, that she did not notice at first when it began to turn dusk and the rooms to grow dim.1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 18:
Obsolete To become attached or fixed; to adhere.
- Our knees shall kneel till to the ground they grow.1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:
- Antonyms
- shrink
- Derived terms
68 terms
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