grow
Formsgrows, growing, grew, grown
- 1To become larger or increase in size or amount.
The company's profits grew steadily throughout the decade.
Cities grow as more people move in from the countryside.
UsagePast forms grew and grown (not
incorrect: growed). Amounts grow by a figure or to a total: grew by 5%.Similarincrease, expand, rise, swell, multiply
Oppositeshrink, decrease, decline, dwindle
Note
Here the thing that gets bigger is the subject (children grow, dangers are growing). The same verb can take that thing as its object when someone makes it larger, as in the cultivating sense.
- 2To develop and reach maturity over time.
As children grow through their teenage years, they start to see the world from other people's point of view.
The young writer grew into a confident storyteller.
UsageOften grow into something (grew into a confident writer) or grow as a person; for children, grow up is the usual phrase.
- 3To make or let something increase in size, especially to raise plants by planting and tending them.
Farmers in the valley grow wheat and barley each season.
She grew a row of sunflowers along the fence.
UsageThe object is what gets bigger: grow tomatoes, grow a beard, and in business talk grow sales or grow a following.
Similarcultivate, raise, produce
Note
Gardeners grow peppers, and in recent use people also grow numbers and audiences. Peter Roff, writing in Fox News in 2011, describes efforts to grow the number of fisheries in a program. James Poniewozik, writing in The New York Times in 2023, recalls how he grew a following on Twitter.
- 4(Of a plant, hair, etc.) to come up and develop, especially naturally or in a particular place.
Wildflowers grow along the edges of the path each spring.
A thick layer of moss grew over the old stone wall.
- 5To gradually take on a condition or quality over time.
As the night wore on, the audience grew restless.
Travelers grow weary after long days on the road.
UsageFollowed by an adjective, like become but by degrees: grew restless, grow tired, grew colder and colder.
Similarbecome, get, turn, go (entry), wax
Note
Here grow works like become, linking a subject to an adjective: grow wise, grow strong, grow less, grow dim. Barbara Sleigh's Jessamy (1967) shows this when the rooms "grow dim" as dusk comes on.
Less common meaning
- 6To become attached or fixed to something; to adhere.
Our knees shall kneel till to the ground they grow.
1595, William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”Note
An obsolete meaning in which grow takes to and names the surface something becomes fixed upon. Shakespeare, in about 1595, has knees that will kneel "till to the ground they grow," as if rooted there. A modern reader can easily hear such a line as the ordinary "get bigger" meaning. In present-day writing, say adhere, cling or become fixed instead.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Grow had an obsolete meaning of becoming attached or fixed. en.wiktionary.org
- Richard II was probably written c. 1595 and first printed in 1597; the composition date needs qualification. rsc.org.uk
- Shakespeare depicts knees kneeling "till to the ground they grow". shakespeare.mit.edu
- The quoted wording is "till to the ground they grow". shakespeare.mit.edu
Practice
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Origin
The Proto-Indo-European root *gʰreh₁- ("to grow, become green") gave Proto-Germanic *grōaną ("to grow, grow green"), then Old English grōwan ("to grow, increase, flourish, germinate") and Middle English growen. "Growth," "grass," and "green" are relatives, and Dutch groeien and German dialect forms are cognates.