Forms: 4–7 towe, (5 toow, 6 toa, 7–8 toe), 5–6 tawe, 5– tow. [Known only from last quarter of 14th c. Origin doubtful: perh. related to ON. tó n. uncleansed wool or flax, unworked fiber of thread; which is doubtfully connected with OE. *tow- spinning, weaving, in towcræft, towhús, and towlíc fit for spinning, textile, and obs. MDu. touwen to knit, to weave (Kilian). The original sense may have been ‘textile fiber’ generally.
Kilian has ‘Touw Fris. Ang. j. werck, Stupa’; and ‘Tauw j. touw’; also, ‘Werck, Stupa, lini stupa, linum vile, lini purgamentum, lana crassior & recrementitia’; which evidently agrees with our word; but touw has not been found in Fris., and the value of Kilian’s entry is uncertain.]
† 1. app. The unworked stem or fiber of flax, before it is heckled. Obs. rare–1.
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), xi. 42. Raab … þat ressayued þe messangers of Israel … and seled [pr. feled] þam in hir hous amang towe of lyne [cf. Vulgate Josh. ii. 6. operuitque eos stipula lini; Wyclif, couerd hem with stuble of flaxe].
2. The fiber of flax, hemp, or jute prepared for spinning by some process of scutching.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XVII. 245. Ac hew fyre at a flynte fowre hundreth wyntre But þow haue towe to take it with tondre or broches Al þi laboure is loste.
c. 1385. Chaucer, L. G. W., 2004 (Ariadne). Ballis ek also Of wex & tow [v.r. towe] … To slake his hungir & encombre his teth.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 498/2. Toow, of a rok, or a roket (… K. towe of hempe, or flax, or othyr like), pensum.
1545. Rates of Customs, c vij b. Towe fyne the C. pounde v. s. Towe the .c. pounde iij s. iiij. d.
1599. A. M., trans. Gabelhouer’s Bk. Physicke, 38/2. Madefye heerin hempen toa, and applye … rownde about his heade.
1616. Surfl. & Markh., Country Farme, 568. To the end that … in beating it with beetles, heckling and spinning of it, such filth may not remaine among the tow.
1674. Grew, Anat. Trunks, II. vii. § 13. The Qualities of the best Tow…are that the Staple be long, small, tough, and white.
1725. Ramsay, Gentle Sheph., II. i. Gae break your wheel, and burn your tow, And set the meiklest peat-stack in a low.
178[?]. Burns (title), The weary pund o’ tow. Ibid., i. I think my wife will end her life Before she spin her tow.
1825. Jamieson, Tow, hemp in a prepared state.
1839. Cumbld. & Westmorld. Dial., 13. Tae … spin tow for bord claiths en sheets.
b. fig.; esp. in phrase to have tow on one’s rock (distaff), to have business to attend to.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Miller’s T., 588. This Absolon … hadde moore tow [v.r. towe] on his distaf Than Gerueys knew.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., xiii. 389. I haue tow on my rok more then euer I had.
1756. Mrs. Calderwood, in Coltness Collect. (Maitl. Club), 155. ‘In good faith,’ says John,… ‘the Dutch has some other tow in their rock.’
1890. Doyle, White Company, v. They may find they have more tow on their distaff than they know how to spin.
3. More strictly, the shorter fibers of flax or hemp, which are separated by heckling from the fine and long-stapled, called line; = HARDS, hurds.
1530. Palsgr., 183. Unes estovpes, a locke of towe or hurdes. Ibid., 282/1. Towe, estouppes.
1552. Huloet, Tow, stipa, æ, stupa, æ.
1601. Holland, Pliny, XIX. i. II. 4. That part … which is utmost and next to the pill or rind, is called Tow or Hurds, and it is … good for little or nothing but to make lampe-match or candle-wicke.
1844. G. Dodd, Textile Manuf., v. 165. The flax ceases to be called by that name after it has passed through the heckling-machines; the good portion is then called ‘line,’ and the inferior ‘tow.’
1893. Daily News, 14 July, 3/7. Prices of lines and tows unchanged. Ibid. (1896), 12 Dec. 8/6. Flax, tow, and codilla quiet.
4. attrib. and Comb. a. attrib. ‘Of or for tow,’ as tow-beetle (BEETLE sb.1), -card (CARD sb.1 2 a), -quality, -waste; ‘consisting or made of tow,’ as tow cloth, goods, hards, rope, sheeting, string, thong, weft, yarn. b. Comb., as tow-heckler; tow-colored, -haired, -like, -made adjs. c. Special combs.: tow-head, a light-colored head of hair; also an unkempt or tousled head; a person having such hair; spec. a local name in southern U.S. for Mergus cucullatus, the Hooded Merganser of North America, the male of which has a semicircular crest with a white patch; hence tow-headed a., having whitish or tousled hair; tow-wheel, a large spinning-wheel for making coarse tow yarn.
1601. Holland, Pliny, XIX. i. II. 4. To be beaten and punned … with an hurden mallet or *tow-beetle made for the purpose.
1801. Jas. Thomson, Willy Weir’s Legacy, xxv. A pair o’ gude *tow-cards.
1775. Cooke, in Sparks, Corr. Amer. Rev. (1853), I. 27. Such a demand for *tow-cloth for family use.
1822. J. Flint, Lett. Amer., 232. A tent was dismantled of its tow cloth covering.
1842. Baton-Rouge Gaz., 24 Dec., 2/3. On the threshhold-stone of an old, dingy dwelling, sat a little, *tow-haired urchin, covered with dirt and rags, a large slice of bread in his hand, and crying most bitterly.
1887. J. Ashby-Sterry, Cucumber Chron., 5. There are six tow-haired children playing beneath a guide-post.
1617. J. Barbier, Jan. Ling., 98. The remnants of *tow-hards … are turned into smoke, or burned in the chimney.
1884. G. H. Boughton, in Harper’s Mag., Sept., 530/2. The *tow-headed children rolling about in the orchards.
a. 1800. Pegge, Suppl. Grose, *Tow-Heckler, a dresser of tow for spinning. North.
1907. 19th Cent., April, 584. Her *tow-like hair was tied up with white tape.
1896. Daily News, 12 Dec., 8/6. *Tow-made goods are selling freely in heavy makes for unions.
1336. Acc. Exch., K. R., 19/31 m. 4 (P.R.O.). In x. petris cordis de canabo … pro vno *towerope inde faciendo.
1902. Crockett, Dark o’ Moor, xxxix. Saunders Lennox’s tow rape will break mony a promise on Monday mornin’ by nine o’ Kirkcudbright clock.
1776. Pennsylv. Even. Post, 25 May, 264/2. A pair of *tow trowsers.
1837. Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl., I. 79/2. Bags filled with clay and *tow-waste.
1900. Mary E. Wilkins, Parson Lord (ed. Tauchn.), 26. The great arc of an old *tow-wheel.
1780. A. Young, Tour Irel., I. 262. The warp of *tow-yarn.
