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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

taw.

To prepare or dress, as hemp, by beating; to tew.

3 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/tɔː/Received-Pronunciation
  1. To prepare or dress, as hemp, by beating; to tew.

    obsolete · transitive
  2. To beat; to scourge.

    broadly · transitive
  3. To dress and prepare, as the skins of sheep, lambs, goats, and kids, for gloves, etc., by imbuing them with alum, salt, and other agents, for softening and bleaching them.

    transitive
  4. To dress and prepare, as the skins of sheep, lambs, goats, and kids, for gloves, etc., by imbuing them with alum, salt, and other agents, for softening and bleaching them. To turn (animals' hide) into leather, usually by soaking it in a certain solution.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English tawen, from Old English tawian (“to do, make”), from Proto-West Germanic *tawōn, a variant of Proto-West Germanic *tauwjan, from Proto-Germanic *tawjaną (“to make, prepare”), from Proto-Indo-European *dewh₂- (“to tie to, secure”). Cognate with Dutch touwen (“to rope, tether, curry”), Dutch tuien (“to fasten with ropes”), German Tau (“rope, hawser, cable”), Gothic 𐍄𐌰𐌿𐌾𐌰𐌽 (taujan, “to make, prepare”). Related to tool and possibly to tether.

noun/tɔː/Received-Pronunciation
  1. Tawed leather.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English tawen, from Old English tawian (“to do, make”), from Proto-West Germanic *tawōn, a variant of Proto-West Germanic *tauwjan, from Proto-Germanic *tawjaną (“to make, prepare”), from Proto-Indo-European *dewh₂- (“to tie to, secure”). Cognate with Dutch touwen (“to rope, tether, curry”), Dutch tuien (“to fasten with ropes”), German Tau (“rope, hawser, cable”), Gothic 𐍄𐌰𐌿𐌾𐌰𐌽 (taujan, “to make, prepare”). Related to tool and possibly to tether.

noun/tɔː/Received-Pronunciation
  1. A favorite marble in the game of marbles.

  2. A line or mark from which the players begin a game of marbles.

  3. A dance partner.

    Walk around your corner; see-saw around your taw.
  4. A favorite person; beloved, partner, spouse.

Where this word comes from

Unknown. Attested in English from the 18th century. Compare Old English tāw (“instrument”). Also compare Irish togh (“choose, elect”).

verb/tɔː/Received-Pronunciation
  1. To shoot a marble.

Where this word comes from

Unknown. Attested in English from the 18th century. Compare Old English tāw (“instrument”). Also compare Irish togh (“choose, elect”).

noun/ˈtaʊ//tɔː/Received-Pronunciation
  1. The 22nd and last letter of many Semitic alphabets/abjads, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew, Syriac, and Arabic.

Where this word comes from

Compare Phoenician 𐤕 (tāw), Hebrew ת (tav), Arabic تاء (tāʔ).

verb/tɔː/Received-Pronunciation
  1. To push; to tug; to tow.

Where this word comes from

Compare tew (“to tow”), and tow.

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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.