furrow - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Furrow patterns found outside of a village in Gloucestershire.

Depiction of furrows found on the surface of Ambystoma eggs as the cell membrane pinches inward to divide one cell into two.

A man with a furrowed brow (sense 3).

From Middle English furgh, forow, from Old English furh, from Proto-West Germanic *furh, from Proto-Germanic *furhs (compare Saterland Frisian Fuurge, Dutch voor, German Furche, Swedish fåra, Norwegian Bokmål fure), from Proto-Indo-European *perḱ- (“to dig”). Compare Welsh rhych (“furrow”), Latin porca (“ridge, balk”), Lithuanian prapar̃šas (“ditch”), Sanskrit पर्शान (párśāna, “chasm”).

furrow (plural furrows)

  1. Any trench, channel, or groove; often found on wood or metal.
    1. A trench cut in the soil, as when plowed in order to plant a crop.
      Don't walk across that deep furrow in the field.
      • 1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 217:
        The family feeling was intensified as we stopped to speak to mothers in the cottage gardens, or waved to distant tractors turning over chocolate-brown furrows and driven by 'my dad' or 'my Uncle Bob'.
    2. A deep wrinkle in the skin of the face, especially on the forehead.
      When she was tired, a deep furrow appeared on her forehead.

trench cut in the soil

deep wrinkle in the skin of the face

furrow (third-person singular simple present furrows, present participle furrowing, simple past and past participle furrowed)

  1. (transitive) To cut one or more grooves in (the ground, etc.).
    Cart wheels can furrow roads.
  2. (transitive) To wrinkle.
  3. (transitive) To pull one's brows or eyebrows together due to concentration, worry, etc.
    Synonym: frown
    As she pored over the company's bewildering tax documents, she furrowed her brows, wrinkled her nose, and began to frown her befuddlement.
  4. (intransitive) to become furrowed
    • 2016 February 20, “Obituary: Antonin Scalia: Always Right”, in The Economist‎[1]:
      If you were bold enough to ask Antonin Scalia questions, you had to be precise. Otherwise the bushy black brows would furrow, the chin would crumple and the pudgy, puckish body would start to rock, eager to get at you.

to make one or more cuts or grooves in

to pull one's brows together