Meadow

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /ˈmÉ›dəʊ/
• US IPA: /ˈmÉ›doÊŠ/
• Rhymes: -É›dəʊ

Origin

From Old English mǣdwe, inflected form of mǣd (see mead), from Proto-Germanic *mēdwō (compare West Frisian miede, dialectal Dutch made, dialectal German Matte ("mountain pasture")), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂met- ‘to mow, reap’ (compare Welsh medi, Latin metere, Ancient Greek ámētos ("reaping")), englargement of *h₂meh₁-. More at mow.

Full definition of meadow

Noun

1. A field or pasture; a piece of land covered or cultivated with grass, usually intended to be mown for hay; an area of low-lying vegetation, especially near a river.
• 1879, Richard Jefferies, The Amateur Poacher Chapter 1, But then I had the massive flintlock by me for protection. ¶...The linen-press and a chest on the top of it formed, however, a very good gun-carriage; and, thus mounted, aim could be taken out of the window at the old mare feeding in the meadow below by the brook,....
• 1907, Harold Bindloss, The Dust of Conflict Chapter 1, ...belts of thin white mist streaked the brown plough land in the hollow where Appleby could see the pale shine of a winding river. Across that in turn, meadow and coppice rolled away past the white walls of a village bowered in orchards,...
• 1956, Delano Ames, Crime out of Mind Chapter 7, Our part of the veranda did not hang over the gorge, but edged the meadow where half a dozen large and sleek horses had stopped grazing to join us.
2. Low land covered with coarse grass or rank herbage near rivers and in marshy places by the sea.
   the salt meadows near Newark Bay
• 2013-01, Nancy Langston, The Fraught History of a Watery World, European adventurers found themselves within a watery world, a tapestry of streams, channels, wetlands, lakes and lush riparian meadows enriched by floodwaters from the Mississippi River.

Derived terms