farrow

From Middle English *farow, *fargh (found only in the plural faren), from Old English fearh (“piglet”), from Proto-West Germanic *farh, from Proto-Germanic *farhaz, from Proto-Indo-European *pórḱos, from *perḱ- (“to dig”).

See also Dutch var (“male pig; boar”), Old High German farah; also Middle Irish orc (“piglet”), Latin porcus, Proto-Slavic *porsę (“pig, piglet”), Lithuanian par̃šas, Kurdish purs. Doublet of pork.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈfæɹəʊ/

• Audio (Southern England)

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

farrow (plural farrows)

1. A litter of piglets.
   • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 15]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:

     Aha! I know you, gammer! Hamlet, revenge! The old sow that eats her farrow!

   • 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.