farrow

From Middle English *farwe, *farȝe, *farh (found only in the plural faren), from Old English fearh (“pig”), from Proto-Germanic *farhaz (compare Dutch var (“male pig; boar”), Old High German farah), from Proto-Indo-European *pórḱos (compare Middle Irish orc (“piglet”), Latin porcus, Proto-Slavic *porsę (“pig, piglet”), Lithuanian par̃šas, Kurdish purs), from *perḱ- (“to dig”).

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈfæɹoʊ/, /ˈfɛɹoʊ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈfæɹəʊ/
• Rhymes: -æɹəʊ

farrow (plural farrows)

1. A litter of piglets.
   • 1949, Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces

     She is the womb and the tomb: the sow that eats her farrow.

farrow (third-person singular simple present farrows, present participle farrowing, simple past and past participle farrowed)

1. To give birth to a (litter of piglets).

• farrowing

farrow (not comparable)

1. (of cows) Not pregnant; not producing young (not calving) in a given season or year; barren.