subs. (old).—1.  A partner; an equal. Specifically (old Scots’) a lover or spouse. Amongst colliers = MATE (q.v.).

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  1513.  DOUGLAS, Virgil, 183, 3.

        The tyme complete was for thare jornay grant:
Bot sone him warnis Sibylla the sant,
His trew MARROW, gan schortly to him say.

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  1538.  LYNDSAY, The Complaynt to the King [LAING i. 56, 307].

        For every lord, as he thocht best,
Brocht in ane bird to fyll the nest;
To be ane wacheman to his MARROW.

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  1578.  WHETSTONE, Promos and Cassandra, ii. 4.

        Byrds of a fether, best flye together;
Then like partners about your market goe:
MARROWES adew: God send you fayre wether.

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  1580.  TUSSER, Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie, ch. 57, st. 40, p. 134 (E.D.S.).

        Yet chopping and changing I cannot commend,
With theefe and his MARROW, for feare of ill end.

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  1621.  JONSON, Gipsies Metamorphosed.

        Oh, my dear MARROWS!
No shooting of arrows
Or shafts of your wit,
Each other to hit.

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  1630.  DRAYTON, The Muses Elizium, Nymphal, ii. 1459.

        Cleon, your doves are very dainty,
Tame pigeons else are very plenty.
These may win some of your MARROWS,
I am not caught with doves and sparrows.

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  1677.  E. COLES, English-Latin Dictionary. The gloves are not MARROWS; chirotheæ non sunt pares.

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  1728.  R. LINDSAY of Pitscottie, Historie and Cronicles of Scotland, p. 78. This Cochran was so proud in his conceit, that he counted no Lords to be MARROWS to him.

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  1778.  GROSE, A Provincial Glossary, etc., s.v. MARROW, a fellow, or companion. Exm. This pair of gloves or shoes are not MARROWS, i.e., are not fellows. N.

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  1818.  SCOTT, Rob Roy, xxxv. He saw that he wasna to get Die Vernon for his MARROW.

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  1822.  NARES, Glossary, s.v. MARROW. The word is often used for things of the same kind, and (sic) of which there are two; as of shoes, gloves, stockings: also eyes, hands, feet, &c. Either from the French camerade, Angl. camrad (i.e., comrade), socius, sodalis, by an aphæresis; or from the French mari, Latin maritus in which sense the word is also taken. Thus Scot, a husband or wife is called half MARROW, and such birds as keep chaste to one another are called MARROWS.

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  1852.  Lloyd’s Paper, 31 Oct. ‘Northumberland.’ Afraid to face the angry frowns of their grieving MARROWS, they determined, like desperate men, to stay where they were. Great was the consternation and mourning at Hylton, and, bent on knowing the worst, the forsaken wives set forth on a voyage in search of the lost husbands.

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  2.  (venery).—The semen. For synonyms, see SPENDINGS, and cf. MARROWBONE, subs. sense 2.

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  1598.  SHAKESPEARE, All’s Well that Ends Well, ii. 3, 298. Spending his manly MARROW in her arms.

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