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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

stow.

A place, stead.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/stəʊ/Received-Pronunciation/stoʊ/General-American/stəʉ/Australia/stɐʉ/New-Zealand
  1. A place, stead.

    rare
Where this word comes from

From Middle English stowe, from Old English stōw (“place, location”), from Proto-West Germanic *stōu, from Proto-Germanic *stōō (“a place, stowage”), from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand, place, put”). Cognate with Old Frisian stō (“place”), Icelandic stó (“fireplace”), Dutch stouw (“place”), German Stau (“congestion”). See also -stow.

verb/stəʊ/Received-Pronunciation/stoʊ/General-American/stəʉ/Australia/stɐʉ/New-Zealand
  1. To put something away in a compact and tidy manner, in its proper place, or in a suitable place.

    transitive
  2. To store or pack something in a space-saving manner and over a long time.

    transitive
  3. To arrange, pack, or fill something tightly or closely.

    transitive
  4. To dispose of, lodge, or hide somebody somewhere.

    transitive
  5. To cease; to stop doing something.

    obsolete · slang · transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English stowen, stawen, stewen, from Old English stōwian (“to hold back, restrain”), from Proto-Germanic *stōōną, *stōjaną (“to stow, dam up”), from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand, place”). Cognate with Dutch stuwen, stouwen (“to stow”), Low German stauen (“to blin, halt, hinder”), German stauen (“to halt, hem in, stow, pack”).

intj/stəʊ/Received-Pronunciation/stoʊ/General-American/stəʉ/Australia/stɐʉ/New-Zealand
  1. A cry used by falconers to call their birds back down to hand.

    obsolete · transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English stowen, stawen, stewen, from Old English stōwian (“to hold back, restrain”), from Proto-Germanic *stōōną, *stōjaną (“to stow, dam up”), from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand, place”). Cognate with Dutch stuwen, stouwen (“to stow”), Low German stauen (“to blin, halt, hinder”), German stauen (“to halt, hem in, stow, pack”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.