Wiktionary

strew

English

edit

Alternative forms

edit

Etymology

edit

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”).

Cognates
Cognate with Scots strow, straw (“to strew”), West Frisian streauwe (“to strew”), Dutch strooien (“to strew, scatter, sprinkle”), German streuen (“to strew, scatter”), Swedish strö (“to strew”), Icelandic strá (“to strew”), Norwegian Nynorsk strå (“to strew”).

Pronunciation

edit

Verb

edit

strew (third-person singular simple present strews, present participle strewing, simple past strewed, past participle strewn or strewed)

  1. (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.
  2. (archaic) To cover, or lie upon, by having been scattered.
    Leaves strewed the ground.
  3. (transitive, archaic) To spread abroad; to disseminate.
  4. To populate with at random points; to cause to appear randomly distributed throughout.
    error-strewn

Synonyms

edit

Derived terms

edit
edit

Translations

edit

Anagrams

edit

Middle English

edit

Noun

edit

strew

  1. Alternative form of straw

Yola

edit

Noun

edit

strew

  1. Alternative form of stre

References

edit
  • 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
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=strew&oldid=82886175"
  NODES
Note 1