windrow meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

windrow

noun

/ˈwɪnd.ɹəʊ/

Etymology From wind + row.

8 senses

A row of cut grain or hay allowed to dry in a field.

A line of leaves etc heaped up by the wind.

A similar streak of seaweed etc on the surface of the sea formed by Langmuir circulation.

A line of gravel left behind by the edge of a grader’s blade.

Broadly A ridge or berm at a perimeter

Canada A line of snow left behind by the edge of a snowplow’s blade.

Canada, Broadly A long snowbank along the side of a road.

UK The green border of a field, dug up in order to carry the earth onto other land to improve it.

verb

Etymology From wind + row.

To arrange (e.g. new-made hay) in lines or windrows.

This cool spell favored the cane shipped to some extent, for if the weather had remained as warm for three or four days as it was Friday, all the cane that was windrowed after the freeze would have been lost and much of it that was windrowed before the freeze would have met a like fate.1899, January 7, correspondent P.C.M., The Louisiana Planter and Sugar Manufacturer, volume 22, number 1, “Vermilion”, page 7
Threshing a previously windrowed swath (windrowing) or cutting and threshing the crop in one operation (direct heading) are the common methods of harvesting oilseed rape.1979, Ralph E. H. Sims, New Zealand Journal of Experimental Agriculture, ISSN 0301-5521, volume 7, number 4, “Comparative methods of harvesting oilseed rape”, page 79

1 more example

Using a motor grader to windrow the pulverized reclaimed material.1990, J. A. Epps, Transportation Research Board, NCHRP Synthesis of Highway Practice, ISSN 0547-5570, “Cold-Recycled Bituminous Concrete Using Bituminous Materials”, “Blade Mixing”, page 13