tew

See also: Tew

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English tewen, a variant of tawen (“to taw, prepare”). More at taw.

Alternative forms

• tue

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tjuː/, /tuː/
• Rhymes: -uː

Noun

tew (plural tews)

1. (obsolete, UK, dialect) A rope or chain for towing a boat.
2. (obsolete, UK, dialect) A cord; a string.
3. (obsolete, UK, dialect) Trouble; worry.

Verb

tew (third-person singular simple present tews, present participle tewing, simple past and past participle tewed)

1. To tow along, as a vessel.
   • 1612, Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion, song 12 p. 197:

     By which the Danes had then their full-fraught Navies tew’d:

2. To prepare (leather, hemp, etc.) by beating or working; to taw.
   • 1910 (quoting work from 1551), The Publications of the Thoresby Society - Volumes 18-19, page 280:

     It' I bequeath to Richard Smythe, of Steton, my best losyn sherte, a tewed bull skyn, a bushell of wheate, and a bushel of barlie.

   • 1602, M. John Brereton, Brereton's Briefe and True Relation of the Discoverie of the North Part of Virginia:

     yet wee found no townes, nor many of their houses, although we saw manie Indians, which are tall big boned men, all naked, saving they cover their privy parts with a blacke tewed skin, much like a Black-smithes apron, tied about their middle and betweene their legs behinde:

   • 1807, Thomas Best, A Concise Treatise on the Art of Angling, page 99:

     These afford very good dubbing, and a variety, especially those hides that have been tewed, or dressed in a skinner's lime-pit;

3. (by extension) To beat; to scourge.
   • 1607, ?Gavriel Archer, A relayton of the Discovery of our River, from Iames Forte into the Maine:

     with the king ran also Dyvers others, who all returning brought Cudgells and wandes in their hands all to be tewed, as if they had beaten him extreamly.

   • 1813, James Burney, A Chronological History of the Discoveries in the South Sea Or Pacific Ocean, page 357:

     On the shores which lie open to the East, the grass grows down to the water side, and they are the greener shores; but on the shores exposed to the West, the grass and trees are weather beaten and worn away, and the shore sides much tewed with the surge.

   • 1834, John Holland, A Treatise on the Progressive Improvement and Present State of the Manufacture in Metal, Volume 3, page 215:

     When the sand, mixed with wort upon the stone casting table, has been thoroughly pounded or tewed, by means of a short, thick, wooden roller, the workman places one of the boxes upon the moulding board, and also arranges thereon the models of the articles to be cast, or parts of the same, which must all be of such a shape as that they will admit of being withdrawn, without difficulty, from the sand.

   • 1839, Thomas Curtis, “Founding”, in The London encyclopaedia, page 493:

     The edges of the table or board are surrounded by a ledge , in order to support the tewed stuff ; the table so previously prepared is filled up with the sand as high as the top of the ledge, which is in a moderately moistened state, and which must be pressed closely down upon the table in every part.

4. To muddle; to mix up.
   • 1639, John Fletcher, Wit Without Money:

     Within here, h'as made the gayest sport with Tom the Coachman, so tewed him up with Sack that he lies lashing a But of Malmsie for his Mares.

   • 1890, Rudyard Kipling, “On Greenhow Hill”, in Mine Own People:

     “Happen there was a lass tewed up wi 'it. Men do more than more for th' sake of a lass.

   • 1894, Ainsworth Rand Spofford, Rufus Edmonds Shapley, “Rabelais Imitates Diogenes”, in The Library of Wit and Humor, Prose and Poetry, page 21:

     And then again in a mighty bustle he bandied it, slubbered it, hacked it, whittled it, wayed it, […] tugged it, tewed it, carried it, bedashed it, […] that it was ten thousand to one he had not structk the bottom of it out.

5. To work at or worry.
   • 1829, William Edmundson, A Journal of the Life, Travels, Safferings and Labour of Love in the Work of the Ministry, page 79:

     The book was in town, I sent a Friend for it, who brought it to the governor: the priest tewed and turned it, but could not find any thing to prove his charge.

   • 1870, Jottings from memory, by a clergyman, page 69:

     His first words were, “Since I saw you I 'tewed' hard for it betwint me and God, and He has pardoned my sins.

6. To harangue or argue with.
   • 1647, John Fletcher, William Rowley, The Maid in the Mill:

     You should have ta'en her then, turn'd her, and tewed her I' th' strength of all her resolution, flatter'd her, and shaked her stubborn will; she would have thank'd you, She would have loved you infinitely;

   • 1879, Marietta Holley, Josiah Allen's Wife as a P.A. and P.I. Samantha at the Centennial, page 404:

     But it haint his doin's; he has been tewed at, night and day.

7. (UK, Scotland, obsolete, dialect) To tease; to vex or worry.
   • 1863, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Aurora Floyd - Volume 1, page 201:

     but having received his orders early that morning from the trainer, accompanied with a warning not to suffer himself to be tewed (Yorkshire patois for worried) by anything Mr. Mellish might say, the sallow-complexioned lad walked about in the calm serenity of innocence

   • 1867, Belgravia - Volume 3, page 10:

     After dinner uncle Joe made off to his piggeries; while aunt Dorothy fell asleep in a capacious old arm-chair by the fire, after making an apologetic remark to the effect that she was tired, and had been a good deal "tewed" that morning in the dairy. "Tewed," I understand, is Yorkshire for "worried."

   • 1800, Francis Lathom, Men and Manners, page 33:

     Mr. Parkinson, I have been as ill done by as that young lady; I have been worried, and tewed, and cheated out of my life and senses .

   • 1881, Alethea M. Huddleston, John Hazlehurst; or, Original sin, page 182:

     My missis and me liv'd i' peace fifty-three years, Peg wur allus a Chapel goer, bud I wur a careless chap and that tewed her.

8. To work hard; to strive.
   • 1621, Braithwaite, Nature's Embassie, page 152:

     He 'le tug and tew, and strive and stoope to ought.

   • 1914, Transactions of the Yorkshire Dialect Society - Volumes 3-4, page 59:

     Poor Nannie tewed on, hau'f hungered ti deead, Sha kenn'd nowt o ' t'gowd 'at war squandered awaay, Just 'arnin 'eneeaf fer watter an' breead.

Etymology 2

Adverb

tew (not comparable)

1. Pronunciation spelling of too.
   • 2023 November 29, @Rateekification, Twitter‎:

     bollywood was tew good this year it was refreshing that it made it to my top genres

Anagrams

• ewt, wet

Cornish

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Adjective

tew

1. fat
2. thick
3. dense
4. bulky

Mutation

Cornish consonant mutation
unmutated	soft	aspirate	hard	mixed	mixed after 'th
tew	dew	thew	unchanged	unchanged	unchanged

  Mutation of tew  

Numeral

tew

1. Hard mutation of dew.
2. Mixed mutation of dew.

Kalasha

Etymology

From Sanskrit तैल (taila).

Noun

tew

1. oil, petrol

K'iche'

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /teːʋ/, /teːʍ/, /teːw/

Adjective

tew

1. cold

Noun

tew

1. cold
2. frost
3. chills
4. nervousness
5. jitters

Related terms

• abäj tew (“frost; ice; snow”)
• ch’aqi’ tew (“malaria”)
• ja’ tew (“frozen”)
• kowirik r-umal tew (“to freeze”)
• q’aaq’a teew (“to shiver, to shudder”)
• q’osibal tew (“cold (illness)”)
• räx tew (“malaria”)
• saq tew (“frost; snow”)
• teew joron sin r-animah (“person with no spirit”)
• teew kaqiiq’ (“spirit of the wind”)
• usok teew (“clouds descending in the afternoon”)
• u-tewal (“coldness; chilliness”)
• xpe teew (“it is cold”)
• xqaj teew (“ice fell”)

References

• Allen J. Christenson, Kʼiche-English dictionary
• Proyecto Lingüístico "Francisco Marroquín", 2005 Diccionario K'iche'

Scots

Preposition

tew

1. to

Welsh

Etymology

From Proto-Brythonic *teɣ, from Proto-Celtic *tegus, from Proto-Indo-European *tégus.

Pronunciation

• (North Wales) IPA^(key): /teːu̯/
• (South Wales) IPA^(key): /tɛu̯/

Adjective

tew (feminine singular tew, plural tewion, equative tewed, comparative tewach, superlative tewaf)

1. thick, fat

Derived terms

• pendew (“thick-topped, blockead”)
• tewaidd (“thickish”)
• tewder (“thickness”)

 

Mutation

Welsh mutation
radical	soft	nasal	aspirate
tew	dew	nhew	thew
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

References

• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “tew”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies

Yurok

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tew/

Noun

tew

1. truncated form of tewon