Also 5–7 towe. [Known in Sc. use c. 1470: not in OE. (exc. perh. in ‘tóh-line remulcus,’ tow-line, in Wr.-Wülcker 182/32). Corresponds to OFris. tow (from 15th c.), WFris. tou, NFris. tau, tāw, mod.Du. touw, early mod.Du. touwe (Kilian), MLG. touwe, touw, LG. and EFris. tau, whence mod.Ger. tau (1663 in Kluge); generally identified (at least the monosyll. forms) with ON. tog, Norw. tog, Sw. tåg, Da. toug, tov, all meaning ‘rope, cable, cord’: akin also to ON. taug f., OE. téaʓ, téah string, rope, TIE sb. The fundamental meaning was app. ‘means for drawing,’ f. ablaut stem teuh-, tauh-, tuʓ- (tog-) to draw: see TEE v.1] A rope. Chiefly Sc.
c. 1470. Henryson, Mor. Fab., v. (Parl. Beasts), xii. With towis proud ane palȝeoun can thay picht.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, V. xii. 163. Thair cabillis new, and thar heid towis reparis.
1534. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., VI. 234. Cabillis and towis brocht hame to the Kingis schip.
a. 1578. Lindesay (Pitscottie), Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.), I. 175. His handis bund witht sic ane tow of hempt.
1646. Alloa Kirk Session Rec., in North. N. & Q., 18. For towes to the bell.
a. 1670. Spalding, Troub. Chas. I. (1829), 12. Upon Monday … at night, he came down over the castle wall, upon tows brought to him secretly by his wife, and clearly wan away.
1785. Burns, Holy Fair, xxvi. Now Clinkumbell, wi’ rattlin tow [= bell-rope] Begins to jow and croon.
1887. Jesse M. E. Saxby, Lads of Lunda, 117. She was scudding out the Voe, Erik steering, Bill at the tows (halyards).
b. spec. A hangman’s rope, a halter.
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot., VIII. cii. (S.T.S.), II. 66. The tow, quhilke he maid to hang vtheris in, him selfe was first caught in.
1822. Scott, Pirate, xviii. It can end in naething but trees and tows [= gallows].
1886. Stevenson, Kidnapped, 50. There’s many would like to see him girning in a tow.
c. In various specific or contextual uses (Sc. or Eng. dial.): e.g.,
The rope or chain by which the weights of a clock are suspended (Sc.); a line or rope for sea-fishing (Orkney & Shetl.); the winding-cable for raising and lowering the cage, etc., in a coal-pit (Sc. and north. Eng.); a rope or chain for hauling timber (Eng. dial.); a line attached to the horns of the leading oxen in a South African team (also fore-tow).
1834. A. Smart, Rhymes, 136. Just pou’ the tow up when ye beddit.
1844. W. H. Maxwell, Sports & Adv. Scot., xv. (1855), 136. They prepare to set their tows, or lines, provided with ling hooks…. The whole of the packies a boat carries is a fleet of tows.
1850. R. G. Cumming, Hunter’s Life S. Afr. (1902), 8/1. The twelve oxen are soon all securely yoked in their proper places; the leader has made up his ‘fore-tow,’ which is a long spare rheim attached round the horns of each of the fore or front oxen.
1863. W. C. Baldwin, Afr. Hunting, viii. 357. When the front oxen had reached the boys, I shouted, ‘Let go the tow, and get out of the road.’
1883. Gresley, Gloss. Coal-mining, Tow,… 2. A winding rope of hemp.
1884. W. Worc. Gloss. (Upton-on-Severn), Tow, a chain for hauling timber.
1893. Heslop, Northumbld. Gloss., Tow, a small rope or painter.
1898. Daily News, 25 Feb., 3/1. He went down with the first tow and found the fireman there.
