Word.ws English Dictionary

jow

UK/d͡ʒəʊ/US/d͡ʒaʊ/

jow is the alternative form of jhow.

Verb (1)

jow (third-person singular simple present jows, present participle jowing, simple past and past participle jowed)

  1. (UK, dialectal, transitive) To knock, strike, bump.
  2. (Scotland, transitive) To ring or toll (a bell).

Meaning of jhow

Noun

jhow (uncountable)

  1. (East, India) A grassy tamarisk shrub, of species Tamarix indica, common in river-marshes.
    • The river remains most uninteresting: the banks are low and covered chiefly with Jhow.1847, William Griffith, Journals of travels in Assam, Burma, Bootan, Affghanistan and the Neighbouring Countries, page 318

Noun

jow (plural jows)

  1. (historical) A premetric unit of length in India, equal to approximately a quarter of an inch.

Verb (2)

jow

  1. (India, imperative, obsolete) Go away; begone.
    • This is always the way in India: the servant assures you that what you require is not procurable […] you politely reply, "Jow" (go away), and in nine cases out of ten he will return with the desired article; […]1861, M. A. Wallace-Dunlop, Rosalind Harriet Maria Wallace-Dunlop Inverarity, The Timely Retreat from India, Before the Mutinies (page 163)
    • He angrily tells the crowd to jow (go away), and the nearest of them sheer off a few paces, […]1927, Alfred Claude Brown, The Ordinary Man's India, page 88

Verb (3)

jow (third-person singular simple present jows, present participle jowing, simple past and past participle jowed)

  1. (UK, dialectal) To talk loudly.

Forms of jow

Noun
pluraljows
alternative formgaou
alternative formgau
alternative formgow
alternative formjaob
Verb
third-person singular presentjows
present participlejowing
past participlejowed
pastjowed

Origin of jow

Alteration of jowl (“to knock, strike, ring a bell”), with loss of final l.

Apparently from earlier *jowl, from Middle English chaulen, chavelen (“to jabber”). Compare jawl (“to talk loudly”).

Phrases with jow

Questions about jow

What does jow mean?
Jow means a premetric unit of length in India, equal to approximately a quarter of an inch.
What is jow the alternative form of?
Jow is the alternative form of jhow.
What part of speech is jow?
Jow can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce jow?
Jow is pronounced /d͡ʒəʊ/ (UK).
What is the plural of jow?
The plural of jow is jows.

Words near jow in the dictionary

  1. jovilabes
  2. Jovinianism
  3. Jovinianist
  4. Jovinianists
  5. Jovon
  6. jow
  7. Jowan
  8. jowar
  9. jowari
  10. jowarree
  11. jowarry

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: jow (page history and authors); jhow (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.

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