shaw

Noun

shaw (plural shaws)

1. (dated, dialectal) A thicket; a small wood or grove.
   • All this herd sire Lamorak / and on the morne sir lamorak took his hors and rode vnto the forest / and there he mette with two knyghtes houynge vnder the wood shawe1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter XII, in Le Morte Darthur, book IX
   • Thenne said sire kay I requyre you lete vs preue this aduenture / I shal not fayle you said sir Gaherys / and soo they rode that tyme tyl a lake / that was that tyme called the peryllous lake / And there they abode vnder the shawe of the wood1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter XXXIX, in Le Morte Darthur, book IX
2. (Scotland) The leaves and tops of vegetables, especially potatoes and turnips.
   • Up here the hills were brave with the beauty and the heat of it, but the hayfield was still all a crackling dryness and in the potato park beyond the biggings the shaws drooped red and rusty already.1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 35

Interjection

1. (slang) A kind of battle cry or warning.
2. Censored spelling of shit.

Proper noun capitalized: Shaw

Shaw (countable and uncountable, plural Shaws)

1. An English topographic surname for someone who lived by a small wood or copse.
2. A village in Shaw cum Donnington parish and Newbury parish, West Berkshire district, Berkshire (OS red ref SU4868).
3. A town in Shaw and Crompton parish, Oldham borough, Greater Manchester (OS grid ref SD9308).
4. A hamlet in Oxenhope parish, City of Bradford, West Yorkshire (OS grid ref SE0234).
5. A village in Melksham Without parish, Wiltshire (OS grid ref ST8865).
6. A suburb and ward in west Swindon, Wiltshire (OS grid ref SU1185).
7. An unincorporated community in Neosho County, Kansas, United States.
8. A small city in Bolivar County and Sunflower County, Mississippi, United States.
9. A neighbourhood of Washington, D.C., United States.
10. A neighbourhood of St. Louis, Missouri.