DictionaryAI

sew

SaySOH/soʊ/UK/səʊ/
As a nounSOO

Verbsews, sewing, sewed, sewn

Noun pluralsews

4 meanings of sew

Practice

  1. 1
    verbtransitive or intransitive
    To use a needle and thread to join cloth or other material, or to stitch something inside it.

    She sewed a patch onto her jeans.

    My grandmother taught me how to sew.

    UsageSay I sewed it, I have sewn it. Sow (seeds) sounds the same but is a different word.

    Similarstitch

  2. 2
    USSOO/suː/UKSYOO/sjuː/
    drainverbobsoletetransitive
    To let the water out of a place such as a pond so it is empty.
    Now geld with the gelder the ram and the bul, / sew ponds, amend dammes, and sel webster thy wul
    1573, Thomas Tusser, Five Hundred Pointes of Good HusbandrieHere, sew means to let the water out of ponds so they are empty.
    Note
  3. 3
    thin soupnounobsolete
    A thin soup, or a sauce made from the juice of cooked meat.
    Note

Less common meaning

  1. 4
    verbarchaic
    Used of a ship: to rest on the ground instead of floating.

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Origins

Meaning 1

From an old English word meaning 'to sew'. It goes back to a very old root with the same meaning and is related to the word seam.

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

Meaning 2

Made by shortening the word sewer, meaning a drain.

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

Meaning 3

From an old English word for a kind of soup, which came from an older word meaning 'juice'.

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

  • The noun sew comes from an old English word meaning a kind of soup: Middle English sew, meaning broth. en.wiktionary.org
  • The earlier word for broth came from a still older word meaning juice. en.wiktionary.org