tow

«tow» in Mova's school dictionary: to pull it behind a vehicle or boat, using a rope, chain… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (tow, tows, towed, towing); noun (a tow, tows)

meaning for a pupil

1) To tow something is to pull it behind a vehicle or boat, using a rope, chain or bar. tree →

2) A tow is the act of towing, as in "give someone a tow". tree →

3) "In tow" means following closely behind, as in "with three children in tow". tree →

4) The tough, rough fibre of flax or hemp, combed out before it is spun into thread. tree →

sense in the lessons

In everyday life, a breakdown truck tows a broken-down car, and cars tow caravans and trailers. In road safety and parking, a car parked illegally can be towed away. In science, towing is a pulling force. Phrases: "tow truck", "tow away", "give someone a tow", "in tow", "tow rope".

examples

• The tow truck towed our car to the garage. tree →
• Dad's car tows the caravan on holiday. tree →
• If you park there, your car will be towed away. tree →
• The tractor gave the stuck car a tow out of the mud. tree →
• Mum arrived with all five of us in tow. tree →
• The boat towed the water-skier across the lake. tree →
• When they saw the wee bannock come in, they jumped up, and got behind the goodwife, that was carding tow by the fire. tree →

note

Regular verb: towed. Homophone: toe (on your foot). Trap: it is "in tow" (following), not "in toe"; but "toe the line" (obey rules) uses toe. A tow truck is also called a breakdown truck (UK) or wrecker (US).

In the corpora

• A horse comes along the tow-path pulling a barge, steered by a big stout woman in a sun-bonnet.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «tow» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.