grow

From Middle English growen, from Old English grōwan (“to grow, increase, flourish, germinate”), from Proto-Germanic *grōaną (“to grow, grow green”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰreh₁- (“to grow, become green”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɡɹəʊ/, [ˈɡɹəʊ̯]
• (US) IPA^(key): /ɡɹoʊ/, [ˈɡɹoʊ̯]

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -əʊ

grow (third-person singular simple present grows, present participle growing, simple past grew, past participle grown)

1. (ergative) To become bigger.

   Children grow quickly.

2. (intransitive) To appear or sprout.

   Flowers grew on the trees as summer approached.

   A long tail began to grow from his backside.

3. (transitive) To cause or allow something to become bigger, especially to cultivate plants.
   • 2011 March 1, Peter Roff, “Another Foolish Move By Congress”, in Fox News‎:

     The Bush administration – which sought to grow the number of fisheries managed under a program known as “catch shares”...

   • For more examples of usage of this term, see Citations:grow.

   He grows peppers and squash each summer in his garden.

   Have you ever grown your hair before?

4. (copulative) To assume a condition or quality over time.
   • 1967, Sleigh, Barbara, Jessamy, 1993 edition, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, →ISBN, page 18:

     In fact she was so bus doing all the things that anyone might, who finds themselves alone in an empty house, that she did not notice at first when it began to turn dusk and the rooms to grow dim.

   • For more examples of usage of this term, see Citations:grow.

   The boy grew wise as he matured.

   The town grew smaller and smaller in the distance as we travelled.

   You have grown strong.

5. (intransitive, obsolete) To become attached or fixed; to adhere.
   • Shakespeare

     Our knees shall kneel till to the ground they grow.

   • For more examples of usage of this term, see Citations:grow.

• Growed is a slang or dialect inflection for the simple past and participle.

• shrink

• grow at OneLook Dictionary Search