marrow

From Middle English mary, marow, marowe, marowȝ, from Old English mearg, from Proto-Germanic *mazgą, *mazgaz, from Proto-Indo-European *mozgos, *mosgʰos. Compare West Frisian moarch, Dutch merg, German Mark, Swedish märg, Icelandic mergur, and also Russian мозг (mozg, “brain”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmæɹəʊ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈmæɹoʊ/, /ˈmeɹoʊ/, /ˈmɛɹoʊ/
• Rhymes: -ærəʊ

marrow (countable and uncountable, plural marrows)

Transected beef bones, exposing the marrow inside

Vegetable marrows

1. (uncountable) The substance inside bones which produces blood cells.
   • 1914, Louis Joseph Vance, chapter III, in Nobody, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, published 1915, OCLC 40817384:

     Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear.

2. (countable) A kind of vegetable like a large courgette/zucchini or squash.
   • 1847, Sir Robert Hermann Schomburgk, "Steam-Boat Voyage to Barbados", Bentley's Miscellany, Vol XXII, London: Richard Bentley, p.37:

     The finest European vegetables, cabbages, cauliflowers, potatoes, vegetable marrow, were lying in the market-hall, awaiting purchasers.

3. The pith of certain plants.
4. The essence; the best part.
   • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare

     It takes from our achievements […] / The pith and marrow of our attribute.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Thomas Tusser

     Chopping and changing I cannot commend, / With thief or his marrow, for fear of ill end.

5. The inner meaning or purpose.
6. (medicine, colloquial) Bone marrow biopsy.

   This patient will have a marrow today.

7. (obsolete) Semen.
   • 1601–1608, William Shakespeare, All’s Well That Ends Well, act ii, scene 3

     Parolles: He wears his honour in a box, unseen / That hugs his kicky-wicky here at home, / Spending his manly marrow in her arms / Of Mars’s fiery steed.

• (the essence; the best part): crux, gist; See also Thesaurus:gist

• bone marrow
• marrowbone

From Old Norse margr.

• marra

marrow (plural marrows)

1. (Geordie, informal) A friend, pal, buddy, mate.

   Cheers marrow!

2. (Scotland) One of a pair; a match; a companion; an intimate associate.

• half-marrow

• A Dictionary of North East Dialect, Bill Griffiths, 2005, Northumbria University Press, →ISBN
• Northumberland Words, English Dialect Society, R. Oliver Heslop, 1893–4
• A List of words and phrases in everyday use by the natives of Hetton-le-Hole in the County of Durham, F.M.T.Palgrave, English Dialect Society vol.74, 1896,