Also 7 vroa. [Du. and Flem. vrouw (cf. FROW sb.) = G. frau woman, wife, FRAU.] A (Dutch) woman, matron, goodwife.
α. c. 1620. [Fletcher & Massinger], Trag. Barnavelt, IV. iv., in Bullen, Old Pl. (1883), II. 285. Ten hundred thousand blessings To him and thee, my vroa.
a. 1700. Songs Lond. Prentices (Percy Soc.), 34. The Dutchman will go to the sign of the Vrow where each man may drink his flagon.
1701. C. Wolley, Jrnl. New York (1860), 55. They seized each other’s hair with their forefeet, and down they went to the Sod, their Vrows and Families crying out because they could not part them.
1824. J. Paterson, in Harp Renfrew., Ser. II. (1873), 108. Till the riflemen … raised a din … Which nearly deprived the fair vrows of their breath.
1884. Contemp. Rev., Oct., 552. The drinking boors of Teniers or the Dutch vrows of Mieris.
β. 1791. Nairne, Poems, 129. And Roman dishes, made at Delf, To ornament an old vrouw’s shelf.
1829. C. Rose, Four Yrs. S. Africa, 49. There is the farmer’s tall powerful form, his vrouw—in general by no means a tempting lady.
1838. W. C. Harris, Narr. Exped. S. Africa, 14. His doating young vrouw received him with overflowing eyes and open arms.
1887. Rider Haggard, Jess, ii. 17. The Boer and his vrouw treated the children fairly well.
