hallow

/ˈhæləʊ/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Scotland/ˈhalo/

hallow noun: a saint; a holy person; an apostle. Also the alternative spelling of hollow.

Noun (1)

hallow (plural hallows)

(obsolete outside set phrases) A saint; a holy person; an apostle.
- All Hallows Eve (or Halloween), the night before All Hallows Day (now more commonly known as "All Saints' Day").
(in plural, obsolete) The relics or shrines of saints or non-Christian gods.
- To seek hallows: to visit relics or shrines, in the belief that the saints themselves are present there.

Verb (1)

hallow (third-person singular simple present hallows, present participle hallowing, simple past and past participle hallowed)

(transitive) To make holy, to sanctify.
- […]I am coming on, to venge me as I may and to put forth my rightful hand in a well-hallow'd cause.1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
- Come hallow the goblet with something more true / Than words we forget in a minute.1847, Charles Swain, Dramatic Chapters: Poems and Songs, D. Bogue, page 324

Verb (2)

hallow (third-person singular simple present hallows, present participle hallowing, simple past and past participle hallowed)

To shout, especially to urge on dogs for hunting.
- […] for the conversation (if it may be called so) was seldom such as could entertain a lady. It consisted chiefly of hallowing, singing, relations of sporting adventures, b—d—y, and abuse of women, and of the government.1749, Henry Fielding, chapter IV, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume III, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book VII

Noun (2)

hallow (plural hallows)

A shout, cry; a hulloo.
- Then away they went from merry Sherwood / And into Yorkshire he did hie / And the King did follow, with a hoop and a hallow / But could not come him nigh.1777, Robin Hood's Chase, reprinted in 2003, Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, Courier Dover Publications, page 206
- I told them, the sherriff could not be admitted on board this time of night, on which they set up a hallow and rowed as fast as they could towards the vessel's bows.1772, William Read Staples, The Documentary History of the Destruction of the Gaspee, Knowles, Vose, and Anthony, published 1845, page 14

Also used as

hallow is also the alternative spelling of hollow.

Forms of hallow

Noun
plural	hallows
Verb
third-person singular present	hallows
present participle	hallowing
past participle	hallowed
past	hallowed
alternative form	hallo
alternative form	hollo
alternative form (obsolete)	halow
alternative form (obsolete)	alow
alternative form (obsolete)	a lo
Adjective
comparative	more hallow
superlative	most hallow

Origin of hallow

Inherited from Middle English halwe (“a saint, holy thing, shrine”), from Old English hālga (“a holy one, saint”), from Proto-Germanic *hailagô (“holy one”), from *hailagaz (“holy”), from Proto-Germanic *hailaz (“whole, safe, hale”), from Proto-Indo-European *kéh₂ilos (“safe, unharmed”). Cognate with Scots halow, hallow (“saint”), German Heiliger (“saint (male)”) / Heilige (“saint (female)”). More at holy, whole.

Inherited from Middle English halwen (“to hallow, sanctify”), from Old English hālgian (“to hallow, sanctify, make holy”), from Proto-Germanic *hailagōną (“to make holy”), from *hailagaz (“holy”), from Proto-Germanic *hailaz (“whole, safe, hale”), from Proto-Indo-European *kéh₂ilos (“safe, unharmed”). Cognate with Dutch heiligen (“to hallow”), German heiligen (“to hallow”). More at holy.

Inherited from Middle English halowen, from halow (interjection), from Old English ēalā (“O!, alas!, oh!, lo!”, interjection), probably conflated with Old French halloer.

Words formed from hallow

Phrases with hallow

Happy Hallow

Words that rhyme with hallow

Questions about hallow

What does hallow mean?: Hallow means a saint; a holy person; an apostle.
What part of speech is hallow?: Hallow can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce hallow?: Hallow is pronounced /ˈhæləʊ/ (UK).
What is the plural of hallow?: The plural of hallow is hallows.

Words near hallow in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: hallow (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-hallow.wav.

Cite this entry: “hallow.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hallow. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.