1557 Earl of Surrey et al. Songes & Sonettes sig. Q.ii A graffe of so small grothe.

1599 H. Buttes Dyets Dry Dinner sig. I5^v Swines Flesh. Nor olde, nor thinne; but of a full groweth.

1600 W. Shakespeare Henry IV, Pt. 2 i. ii. 160 A wassel candle my lord, al tallow, if I did say of wax, my growth would approue the truth. View more context for this quotation

1638 T. Herbert Some Yeares Trav. (rev. ed.) 322 The Elephant is for growth and understanding chiefest, of unreasonable Animalls.

1662 J. Davies tr. A. Olearius Voy. & Trav. J. Albert de Mandelslo 147 in Voy. & Trav. Ambassadors Serpents..of so extraordinary a growth, that there are Serpents have swallowed children and sheep intire.

1678 J. Dryden All for Love iv. 46 Men are but Children of a larger growth.

a1687 W. Petty Polit. Anat. Ireland (1691) 54 An Ox is come to its full growth at 6 years old.

a1732 J. Gay Acis & Galatea ii. 13 Bring me a hundred Reeds of decent Growth, To make a Pipe for my capacious Mouth.

1781 W. Cowper Truth 115 Pride has attained its most luxuriant growth, And poisoned every virtue in them both.

1841 T. R. Jones Gen. Outl. Animal Kingdom xvii. 348 Between the shell and the exterior of the body, where they remain until the embryo attains its full growth.

1663 S. Butler Hudibras: First Pt. i. ii. 81 Chiron, the four-legg'd Bard, hath both A Beard and Tail of his own growth.

1697 J. Dryden Ded. Georgics in tr. Virgil Wks. sig. ¶3 The happy Old Coricyan..whose Fruits and Salads..were all of his own growth, and his own Plantation.

1757 G. Shelvocke, Jr. Shelvocke's Voy. round World (ed. 2) iii. 116 Every family has all the necessaries of life of its own growth and produce.

1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Colonial Reformer (1891) 214 A yeoman class..could use these great levels for the growth of certain semi-tropical crops.

1950 Sci. News 15 56 A typical example of its use is..for the growth of metal crystals.

1962 J. H. Simpson & R. S. Richards Physical Princ. Junction Transistors iii. 40 Crystal growth by zone melting.

1962 J. H. Simpson & R. S. Richards Physical Princ. Junction Transistors iii. 40 Floating-zone crystal growth. The floating-zone refining process may also be used for the production of single crystals.

1963 Daily Tel. 5 Dec. 14/2 The conception of ‘growth areas’ is new.

1966 Listener 2 June 788/2 The Humber estuary is already one of the most significant economic growth areas in the country.

1959 T. E. Babson & D. L. Babson Investing for Successful Future xii. 157 Listed..are a few outstanding growth companies, with the length of their business lives.

1969 Times 8 Jan. 23/2 It has been the growth company par excellence.

1916 Jrnl. Biol. Chem. 24 368 In the growth curves the dots represent the actually determined weights.

1946 Nature 5 Oct. 462/1 Fischer describes the sigmoid growth~curve of the culture, its limiting size, shape-regulation, and power of true reconstitutive regeneration.

1928 Biochem. Jrnl. 22 790 There is, therefore, no justification for calling vitamin B₂ a ‘growth factor’ in contradistinction to vitamin B₁.

1937 Nature 24 July 161/1 ‘Biotin’, a sulphur-containing substance of great potency which may be the chief component of ‘bios’, originally described by Wildiers as a necessary growth factor for yeast. Biotin has also been shown to have an effect on the growth of higher plants.

1964 A. F. Wagner & K. Folkers Vitamins & Coenzymes i. 5 The antiberiberi factor, designated vitamin B, was later found to contain both a heat labile antiberiberi factor and a thermostable growth factor.

1887 H. E. F. Garnsey & I. B. Balfour tr. H. A. de Bary Compar. Morphol. & Biol. Fungi i. 2 Both [forms] are growth-forms (Wuchsformen) comparable with those growth-forms in the higher plants which are known as the tree, shrub and herb.

1909 E. Warming et al. Oecol. Plants ii. 4 In 1884, Warming, having in view the North-European Spermophyta, gave a general survey of growth-forms which he arranged in fourteen chief groups with many sub-groups, based upon morphological and biological characters.

1960 N. Polunin Introd. Plant Geogr. iii. 92 The ‘life-form’ or ‘growth-form’ of a plant is the form which its vegetative body produces as a result of all the life-processes, including those that are affected by the environment within the plant's life-time and are not heritable.

1929 Nature 15 June 910/1 (heading) Growth-gradients and the axial relations of the body.

1932 J. S. Huxley Probl. Relative Growth iii. 80 It was found that there existed within the limb what we may call a growth-gradient.

1956 C. H. Waddington Princ. Embryol. xiii. 292 It appears probable that there is a single continuous growth gradient with its high point towards the feet, falling off as one goes higher up the body.

1676 E. Coles Eng. Dict. Growth half-peny, paid (in some places) for tythe of every fat beast, Ox and other unfruitfull cattel.[So Phillips (1706 ed. Kersey), and Bailey 1736–92.]

1957 Economist 7 Sept. 778/2 The pattern of growth in Britain's biggest growth industry..is not a balanced one.

1961 Times 30 May 13/6 Publishing is judged to be a ‘growth’ industry.

1966 Listener 15 Sept. 397/3 Only one laird preferred to keep his moor for private use... The grouse shooting agent's view was rather different— his is a growth industry.

1967 N.Y. Times (Internat. ed.) 11 Feb. 9/6 The growth leaders with phenomenal rises are now well known stocks to all investors.

1857 P. H. Gosse Creation 218 On each of the scutal valves in this individual I can count about 260 growth-lines.

1961 Britannica Bk. of Year 537/2 From commerce and organization generally came growthman, one favouring a policy of expansion, and growthmanship, the fixing of specific economic goals.

1964 New Statesman 3 Apr. 539/1 Political growthmen.

1966 New Statesman 18 Nov. 748/2 It is well-fed public opinion which presents the growthman with his chief problem.

1960 Times 18 Aug. 9/2 Both parties advocate a higher rate of economic growth (though not long ago Mr. Nixon was deriding ‘growthmanship’).

1961 C. Clark (title) Growthmanship.

1967 Economist 26 Aug. 733/1 ‘Growthmanship’..has dominated economic policy-making throughout Europe since the end of the second world war.

1963 Economist 11 May 520/2 Turning many more people to new houses at new or refreshed growth points.

1968 Listener 4 Jan. 8/3 His energy and intellectual passion place him at the growth-point of English study to-day.

1932 J. S. Huxley Probl. Relative Growth i. 40 The distribution of growth-potential in different regions.

1958 Listener 13 Nov. 792/2 He regards any repression of demand below the growth potential as a development that would aggravate a rise in the cost of living [etc.].

1968 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 17 Feb. B6 (advt.) Growth potential is strong due to the enthusiastic management support this position enjoys.

1936 G. S. Avery tr. P. Boysen-Jensen Growth Hormones in Plants i. 3 Plant-growth substances, i.e., Wuchsstoffe, have been referred to by various workers as growth hormones, growth regulators, growth enzymes, phytohormones, and auxins.

1954 Plant Physiol. XXIX. 307 The term growth regulator, as recommended here, includes the auxins, but it is broader, and it encompasses other regulators that may modify growth.

1969 F. B. Salisbury & C. W. Ross Plant Physiol. xx. 444/2 Synthetic growth regulators often mimic the effects of naturally occurring growth regulators (including hormones) or interfere with their actions.

1907 D. P. Penhallow Man. N. Amer. Gymnosperms ii. 24 In proceeding to a study of the transverse section the first feature to which attention is naturally directed is the growth ring.

1937 Discovery Apr. 98/1 The largest of the Sequoias of California, estimated by growth-rings to exceed 3,500 years of life.

1960 N. Polunin Introd. Plant Geogr. i. 13 Where cells of different sizes are produced at different seasons, annual ‘growth-rings’ are formed which may easily be seen in most timbers.

1957 Economist 9 Feb. 490/2 Undistributed income..has been transmuted into capital... Hence the investor's emphasis on ‘growth’ stocks.

1965 J. L. Hanson Dict. Econ. 209/1 ‘Growth’ stock, a stock or share which can be expected to appreciate in value in the future, the policy of the directors of the company being to plough back each year a considerable portion of the profits for the purposes of expansion.

1969 Times 13 Jan. 11/3 This is a growth stock yielding only about 2 per cent, and no investment adviser would advocate putting that proportion of their total worth into that kind of investment.

1927 J. B. S. Haldane & J. S. Huxley Animal Biol. xii. 282 A growth-zone near the hind-end.

1963 Daily Tel. 15 Nov. 27/1 The three main centres of expansion in the growth zone.

1967 P. A. Meglitsch Invertebr. Zool. xiv. 636/1 During metamorphosis, this part of the [annelid] larva grows very rapidly; it may be termed the growth zone.

1849 J. Hamilton Mem. Lady Colquhoun (1850) ii. 58 We see how much more growthful is a lowly commencement, if genuine.

1882 Amer. Missioary Dec. 372 The church work..has been steady, growthful, and encouraging.

1824 in Harp of Renfrewsh. (1873) Ser. ii. 97 From its growthless tree I'd dangle like the bell.

1878 J. Todhunter Alcestis 108 A weak, sad, cowering, joyless, growthless shade.

1610 W. Folkingham Feudigraphia i. x. 32 The Tilthe..growes so growthsome that it yeeldes an after-math.

1674 N. Fairfax Treat. Bulk & Selvedge 186 You cannot dig many spades in mold or growthsom earth, before you come at a dead soyl.

1507–8 in J. R. Boyle Early Hist. Town & Port of Hedon (1895) App. p. c Inter le Halff ebbe mark in le Grath meter in Humbr'.

1507–8 in J. R. Boyle Early Hist. Town & Port of Hedon (1895) Gloss. p. ccxvii Grath meter, growth meter. Growth is the name used in the Humber district for the foreshore lying between the river embankment and highwater mark, because covered by a growth of coarse grass. A ‘meter’ is a mark or boundary.]

1741 MS. Court Roll, Burstwick (York) Pasture in Newforth and in the Grooth in Preston.

1773 Preston Incl. Act 22 The salt end of a certain piece of ground..called the hay marsh, lying between the New Bank and the River Humber, together with the growths thereunto belonging.