Forms: α. 1 furh, fyrh (dat.), 3 furȝ, 3–4 furgh(e, 3–5 forw(h, 4 fo(o)rew, forwo, forȝ, furch, 4–5 forgh(e, 4–6 for(r)ough(e, for(r)ow(e, (6 furrough, furrowe, 7 forrwe), 6– furrow. β. 4–5 fore, south. vore, 5 fure, (foure, fowre), 6 feure, 7 furr(e, 9 furr, 4– Sc. fur. [Com. Teut.: OE. furh str. fem. (gen. fyrh, fure, dat. fyrh) = MDu. vōre (Du. voor, vore), OHG. furuh (MHG. vurch, mod.Ger. furche) furrow, ON. for trench, drain:—OTeut. *furh-:—pre-Teut. *pṛk-; cf. L. porca ridge between furrows, OIr. rech, Welsh rhych (:—*pricâ, priccâ).

1

  Some scholars connect this word with L. porcus, Eng. FARROW, assigning to the common root the sense ‘to root like a swine.’]

2

  1.  A narrow trench made in the earth with a plough, esp. for the reception of seed. To sow under the furrow (see quot. 1523).

3

  † To spare neither ridge nor furrow: a proverbial phrase in ME. poems expressive of reckless speed on the part of a rider.

4

c. 888.  K. Ælfred, Boeth., v. § 2. Þonne dysegaþ se þe þonne wile hwilc sæd oþfæstan þam drium furum.

5

955.  Charter of Eadred, in Birch, Cartul. Sax., III. 70. Andlang weȝes to ðære ȝedrifonan furh, andlang fyrh oþ hit cymð [etc.].

6

c. 1220.  Bestiary, 398. [This der] goð o felde to a furȝ, and falleð ðar-inne … forto bilirten fuȝeles.

7

c. 1374.  Chaucer, Former Age, 12. No man yit knew the forwes of his lond.

8

14[?].  Tretyce, in W. of Henley’s Husb. (1890), 47. Yeff [ye] sowe your lande vnder þe foroughe let it be ereyd.

9

c. 1440.  Bone Flor., 746.

        He stroke the stede with the spurrys,
He spared nodur rygge nor forows.

10

1523.  Fitzherb., Husb., § 34. Wheate is mooste commonlye sowen vnder the forowe, that is to saye, caste it vppon the falowe, and than plowe it vnder.

11

1583.  Stubbes, Anat. Abus., II. (1882), 77. A man … shuld take his plow, and go draw a furrow in a field.

12

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 797. The lab’ring Swain Scratch’d with a Rake, a Furrow for his Grain.

13

1728–46.  Thomson, Spring, 37. The well-us’d plough Lies in the furrow.

14

1807.  Crabbe, Par. Reg., I. 658. The straightest furrow lifts the ploughman’s heart.

15

1831.  Sir J. Sinclair’s Corr., II. 365. The chief furrows, which conduct the choaked-up water, are always laid out by the agriculturist himself.

16

1883.  Macfadyen, in Congregat. Year Bk., 47. The furrow is uneven because an ox and an ass draw the plough.

17

β.  c. 1380.  Sir Ferumb., 1565. Þay … Ne spared rigges noþer vores; til þay mette þat pray.

18

c. 1470.  Henry the Minstrel, Wallace, I. 405. The suerd flaw fra him a fur breid on the land.

19

1513.  Douglas, Æneis, VII. iv. 20. A lityll fur, To mark the fundment of his new citie.

20

1600.  Dymmok, Ireland (1843), 42. Of the pryvate men excaped by flight, but more hidd themselves lyke fearefull hares in the furres, all which were by a martiall courte condemned to dye.

21

1641.  H. Best, Rural Economy in Yorkshire in 1641 (Surtees), 44. The furre on your lefte hande is the best for the fore-furre; for then the corne falleth the fittest for the hande.

22

1765.  A. Dickson, Treat. Agric. (ed. 2), 238. The plough will … go upon the points of the irons, which will make her go very kittle, and at the same time make a bad fur.

23

1816.  Scott, Old Mort., xiv. ‘I wad … turn sic furs on the bonny rigs o’ Milnwood holms, that it wad be worth a pint but to look at them.’

24

1877–89.  N. W. Linc. Gloss., Fur, a furrow. ‘All th’ furs was all full o’ waiter on pag-rag daay, an’ soa th’ taaties rotted.’

25

  b.  transf. and fig., esp. in allusion to the track of a vessel over the sea.

26

1382.  Wyclif, Ecclus. vii. 3. Sowe thou not eueles in the foorewes of vnriȝtwisnesse.

27

1535.  Coverdale, Ps. cxxviii[i]. 3. The plowers plowed vpon my backe, and made longe forowes.

28

1589.  Pasquil’s Ret., C b. God shall … punish euery forrow they haue plowed vpon his backe.

29

c. 1600.  Shaks., Sonnet xxii.

        My glasse shall not perswade me I am ould,
So long as youth and thou are of one date,
But when in thee times forrwes I behould,
Then look I death my daies should expiate.

30

1814.  Cary, Dante, Paradise, II. 15.

                Marking well the furrow broad
Before you in the wave, that on both sides
Equal returns.

31

1843.  Tennyson, Ulysses, 59. Push off … smite The sounding furrows.

32

1887.  Bowen, Virg. Æneid, V. 156.

        Beak by beak and together the pair now travel in line,
Each with her long keel ploughing in lengthened furrows the brine.

33

  c.  poet. Used loosely for arable land, a piece of ploughed land, the cornfields.

34

c. 1380.  Sir Ferumb., 5593. Ac sone sterte he vp of þe forȝ.

35

1610.  Shaks., Temp., IV. i. 135.

        You Sun-burn’d Sicklemen of August weary,
Come hether from the furrow, and be merry,
Make holly day: your Rye-straw hats put on,
And these fresh Nimphes encounter euery one
In Country footing.

36

1634.  Milton, Comus, 292. What time the laboured ox In his loose traces from the furrow came.

37

1735.  Somerville, The Chace, II. 130.

                        See how they thread
The Brakes, and up yon Furrow drive along!

38

β.  1500–20.  Dunbar, Poems, xvii. 12. Barronis takis … All fruct that growis on the feure.

39

  d.  (In form fur.) A ploughing. Now only Sc.

40

1610.  W. Folkingham, Art of Survey, I. xi. 43. Their seuerall orders and seasons for fallowing, twifallowing, trifallowing and seed-furre.

41

1743.  R. Maxwell, Sel. Trans. Soc. Improv. Agric. Scot., 21. Holding the Ground, sufficiently drained, and the Soil as described, it is advised to plow it with all convenient Haste, that so it may have got three Furs betwixt and the latter End of April or Beginning of May; the first to be cloven, the second a cross Fur, the third to be gathered.

42

  † 2.  In extended sense: A trench, drain. Obs.

43

c. 1330.  Arth. & Merl., 3460. Þe kniȝt fel ded in a forwe. Ibid., 8184. He cleued thurch … king Beas doun in a furch.

44

1382.  Wyclif, 1 Kings xviii. 32. And he made a water cundid, as by two litil forwis in envyroun of the auter.

45

c. 1420.  Pallad. on Husb., VI. 36. A forgh iij footes deep thy landes thorgh.

46

1561.  T. Norton, Calvin’s Inst., IV. 121. Out of a fountaine water is somtime dronk, somtime is drawen, somtime by forrowes is conueied to the watering of groundes.

47

1577.  B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., II. (1586), 72. If you will needes plante the same yeere … let the furrowes be made at least two moneths before.

48

1611.  Bible, Ezek. xvii. 7. This Vine did bend her rootes towards him, and shot forth her branches toward him, that hee might water it by the furrowes of her plantation.

49

1626.  Bacon, Sylva, § 600. Carrying it [Water] in some long Furrowes; And from those Furrowes, drawing it trauerse.

50

1765.  A. Dickson, Treat. Agric. (ed. 2), 144. The soil, from its nature, retains too large a quantity [of water], will not give it a passage into the furrows or drains, tho’ there is a sufficient descent.

51

1884.  Chr. World, 21 Feb., 134/3. Fortunately, our water furrow is a swift-flowing stream.

52

  † 3.  A quantity (of land) having the length or breadth of a furrow. Obs.

53

c. 1300.  Havelok, 1094. Ne shulde he hauen of Engelond Onlepi forw in his bond.

54

1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. XIII. 372. Þat a fote londe or a forwe fecchen I wolde.

55

1390.  Gower, Conf., III. 245. Til they have with a plough to-broke A furgh of lond.

56

c. 1425.  Wyntoun, Cron., IX. v. 135. Ðat nowþir Fure na Fute of Land Wes at þaire Pes þan of Ingland.

57

c. 1470.  Henry the Minstrel, Wallace, VIII. 22. Off him I held neuir a fur off land.

58

  4.  Anything resembling a furrow; a. generally, e.g., a rut or track, a groove, indentation, or depression narrow in proportion to its length.

59

c. 1374.  Chaucer, Boeth., V. metr. v. 132 (Camb. MS.). Som of hem … drawen after hem a traas or a forwh I-kountynued.

60

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XIX. cxxix. (1495), 938. Orbita is the forough of a whele that makyth a depe forough in the wyndynge and trendlynge abowte.

61

1513.  Douglas, Æneis, II. xi. 32. Thair followis [the sterne] a streme of fire, or a lang fur.

62

1607.  Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1658), 282. The first furrow of the mouth—I mean that which is next unto the upper fore-teeth.

63

1665.  Hooke, Microgr., 4. There were several great and deep scratches, or furrows.

64

1712.  Addison, Spect., No. 416, ¶ 2. The different Furrows and Impressions of the Chisel.

65

1774.  Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), I. 205. The middle waters … sink in a furrow.

66

1813.  J. Thomson, Lect. Inflam., 615. This ligature produced a slight furrow in the arm.

67

  b.  on the face: A deep wrinkle.

68

1589.  Greene, Tullies Loue, Wks. (Grosart), VII. 204. If it [my brow] once proue full of angrie forrowes.

69

1609.  Dekker, Gulls Horne-bk., i. Wks. (Grosart), II. 212. Now those furrowes are filled vp with Ceruse, and Vermilion.

70

1797.  Mrs. Radcliffe, Italian, vi. Habitual discontent had fixed the furrows of their cheeks.

71

1859.  Helps, Friends in C., Ser. II. II. iv. 86. They make … furrows in the cheeks of the sufferers.

72

  c.  Milling. One of the grooves in the face of a millstone. Furrow and land (see quot. 1880).

73

1825.  J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 144. When the furrows become blunt and shallow by wearing, the running stone must be taken up, and both stones new dressed with a chisel and hammer.

74

1870.  Eng. Mech., 28 Jan., 485/2. Cutting all the short furrows into the master furrow.

75

1880.  Antrim & Down Gloss., Furrow and Land, the hollows and heights on the surface of a mill-stone.

76

  d.  Anat., Zool., etc. (= L. sulcus).

77

1807–26.  S. Cooper, First Lines Surg. (ed. 5), 301. As they [lateral sinuses] occupy the deep transverse furrows, in the middle of the inner surface of the os occipitis, a trephine applied over them would inevitably wound them.

78

1832.  De la Beche, A Geological Manual (ed. 2), 327. Whorls few, each divided by eight or ten furrows into as many imbricating joints.

79

1846.  Ellis, Elgin Marb., II. 26. A furrow which forms the line of contact with the forehead.

80

1868.  Darwin, Anim. & Pl., I. v. 140. The external orifice or furrow of the nostrils was also twice as long.

81

1874.  Lubbock, Orig. & Met. Ins., iii. 45. The median furrow easily discerned.

82

1879.  H. Calderwood, Mind & Br., ii. 12. The soft mass [of the brain] being arranged alternately in ridges, and in grooves or furrows (sulci).

83

  e.  Bot.

84

1725.  Bradley, Fam. Dict., Furrow, among Botanists … signifies a Ridge or Swelling on the Sides either of a Tree, Stalk, or Fruit.

85

1776.  Withering, Brit. Plants (1796), I. 151. Seed single, slender, oblong, tapering to a point each end, marked with a furrow lengthways.

86

1862.  Darwin, Fertil. Orchids, iii. 118. If the furrow be touched very gently by a needle, or it a bristle be laid along the furrow, it instantly splits along its whole length, and a little milky adhesive fluid exudes.

87

1882.  Vines, Sachs’ Bot., 396. The arrangement of … projecting longitudinal ridges, and depressions or furrows, is exactly repeated.

88

  5.  attrib. and Comb., as furrow-water; furrow-cloven, -like adjs. Also furrow-board = MOULD-BOARD; furrow-drain (see quot.), hence furrow-drain vb., -draining;furrow-face, one who has a wrinkled face; furrow-faced, -fronted a., having furrows or wrinkles on the face or forehead; furrow- (dial. fur-) side, the side of the plow towards the furrows already made; furrow-slice, the slice of earth turned up by the mould-board of the plow; furrow-weed, a weed that grows on the ‘furrow’ or plowed land.

89

1649.  *Furrow-board [see EARTH-BOARD].

90

1847.  Tennyson, The Princess, VII. 192. The firths of ice That huddling slant in *furrow-cloven falls.

91

1858.  Simmonds, Dict. Trade, *Furrow-drain, a deep open channel made by a plough to carry off water.

92

1846.  McCulloch, Acc. Brit. Empire (1854), I. 593. The new practice of *furrow-draining has been the most important of the recent improvements in Scotch agriculture.

93

1621.  Burton, Anat. Mel., I. ii. III. iv. 130 b. Hollow-eyed, pale, and leane, *furrow-faces, dead looks, wrinkled browes, riueled cheekes, dry bodies.

94

1605.  B. Jonson, Volpone, II. i. I … expose no ships To threat’nings of the *furrow-faced sea.

95

1640.  Rawlins, Rebellion, II. i. The *furrow-fronted Fates have made an Anvill To forge diseases on.

96

1879.  D. M. Wallace, Australas., xi. 225. The loose surface being blown or washed into parallel ridges, sometimes forming hilly undulations, at others *furrow-like ripples, and almost wholly barren.

97

1765.  A. Dickson, Treat. Agric. (ed. 2), 214–5. This lessens the resistance from the *furrow-side, and makes it meet with some resistance from the land-side. Ibid., 235. If the beam points to the fur-side, the plough will have too much land; and if it points to the land-side, the plough will have too little land.

98

1805.  R. W. Dickson, Pract. Agric. (1807), I. 5. The perfect turning over of the *furrow-slice.

99

1862.  J. Wilson, Farming, 206. In ploughing for a seed-bed the furrow-slice is usually cut about 5 inches deep.

100

1679.  Dryden, Troilus & Cr., II. iii. *Furrow Water Is all the Wine we taste.

101

1605.  Shaks., Lear, IV. iv. 3. He was met euen now As mad as the vext Sea, singing alowd, Crown’d with ranke Fenitar and *furrow weeds.

102