strew
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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Alternative forms
Etymology
From Middle English strewen, strawen, streowen, from Old English strewian, strēawian, strēowian (“to strew, scatter”), from Proto-West Germanic *strauwjan, from Proto-Germanic *strawjaną (“to strew”), from Proto-Indo-European *strew- (“to spread, scatter”).
Pronunciation
Verb
strew (third-person singular simple present strews, present participle strewing, simple past strewed, past participle strewn or strewed)
- (dated, except strewn) To distribute objects or pieces of something over an area, especially in a random manner.
- to strew sand over a floor
- The files had been strewn all over the floor.
- c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:
- Sweet flower, with flowers thy bridal bed I strew.
- 1697, Virgil, “Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
- And strewed his mangled limbs about the field.
- 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 2:
- […] I ſee
Th’ Inſulting Tyrant prancing o’er the Field
Strow’d with Rome’s Citizens, and drench’d in Slaughter,
His Horſe’s Hoofs wet with Patrician Blood.
- 1880, [Benjamin Disraeli], Endymion […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC:
- On a principal table a desk was open and many papers strewn about.
- (archaic) To cover, or lie upon, by having been scattered.
- Leaves strewed the ground.
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, Prothalamion:
- The snow which does the top of Pindus strew.
- 1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], (please specify |epistle=I to IV), London: Printed for J[ohn] Wilford, […], →OCLC:
- Is thine alone the seed that strews the plain?
- (transitive, archaic) To spread abroad; to disseminate.
- c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene v]:
- She may strew dangerous conjectures.
- To populate with at random points; to cause to appear randomly distributed throughout.
- error-strewn
Synonyms
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
to distribute objects or pieces of something
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Anagrams
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Noun
strew
- Alternative form of straw
Noun
strew
- Alternative form of stre
References
- Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 70
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