grow
/ɡrəʊ
/- Unlike a moving fibroblast, however, the extending axon also grows in size, with an accompanying increase in the total surface area of the neuron's plasma membrane.
- It seemed that the dot grew slightly in size as the intensity setting was increased.
- Max's whole body had grown in size in around a minute; instead of being his usual 6'4, he was now around 7 to 8 feet tall.
- Grass grew, foliage returned to trees' canopies, and blooming flowers proliferated.
- Nitrate is the main source of nitrogen for most plant species growing in aerobic soils.
- Grass grows well enough there, but it's usually found in raggedly in orchards, or on fields for animals to eat.
Synonyms
- Some grass is grown on the farm for hay or silage, together with swede, turnip or kale for winter forage because grass growth declines drastically in the winter.
- These trees are easily grown from seed which germinates very quickly.
- The range of flavors is determined by where this plant species is grown and how it's processed.
Synonyms
- Imagine growing a replacement body, having your head transplanted to it, and then eating the old body.
- They are actual alien life forms exploiting the gestational nature of my body to try and grow bodies of their own.
- In Masai culture, only warriors are allowed to grow their hair out.
- Cities in Afghanistan didn't grow because of the rivers; they grew up because they were on the ring road or connected to it.
- Second, it seeks to reverse the insidious culture of division that has grown up around the existence of these principles.
- At some point, a complex wooden network began to grow up the walls of the entrance area.
Synonyms
- If so, it is because you have changed or because you have grown to see the person more clearly?
- He has quickly grown to love the work, the people it has brought him in contact with, and the region he had been waiting to return to.
- Obviously factory work was worse because it was so bloody noisy as well, but I really grew to hate those assignments too, as people made the same mistakes over and over and over.
Synonyms
- The last has seen the highest increase in price in the last year, growing in value by 15.4%.
- Money and its availability is usually the primary concern for all budget holders while the latter is growing in importance and complexity.
- It's a procedure that's growing in popularity in America, and especially here in Hollywood.
- But it is the money from business that has grown the industry and accelerated the technology, not hobbying.
- We are expanding but will grow a business to suit ourselves.
- We cannot grow the business because if you want to grow the business you have to get more money.
Synonyms
- It penetrated through the houses, shaking the earth and pounding the eardrums of a garbled populace which had gradually grown accustomed to the noise.
- Initially he supported its Congregationalist ideology, but gradually grew dissatisfied.
- A distant drumming could be heard gradually growing louder and louder.
Usage
Although grow is typically used intransitively, as in he would watch Nick grow to manhood, its use as a transitive verb has long been standard in contexts which refer to growing plants and one’s hair (more land was needed to grow crops; she grew her hair long). Recently, however, grow has extended its transitive sense and become popular in business jargon: entrepreneurs who are struggling to grow their businesses.
Phrases
grow on trees
Phrasal verbs
grow apart
grow away from
grow into
grow on
grow out
grow out of
grow up
Derivatives
growable
/ adjective ...- ‘I'd set the guy up with a growable swap file,’ he said.
Origin
Old English grōwan (originally referring chiefly to plants), of Germanic origin; related to Dutch groeien, also to grass and green.
grass from Old English:
The Old English word grass is descended from the same root word as both green and grow (Old English). According to the well-known saying, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, a sentiment echoed in the works of the Roman poet Ovid: ‘The harvest is always more fruitful in another man's fields.’ A woman whose husband is often away for long periods can be referred to as a grass widow. In the early 16th century, though, this was a term for an unmarried woman with a child, probably from the idea of the couple having lain on the grass together instead of in bed. People have been smoking grass, or cannabis, since the 1940s, originally in the USA. The word has meant ‘an informer’, or ‘to inform’ since the decade before that. In this sense it is probably short for grasshopper, rhyming slang for shopper, a person who ‘shops’ someone. Graze (Middle English) is from Old English grasian ‘eat grass’. See also nark