stow

Noun

stow (plural stows)

1. (rare) A place, stead.

Verb

stow (third-person singular simple present stows, present participle stowing, simple past and past participle stowed)

1. (transitive) To put something away in a compact and tidy manner, in its proper place, or in a suitable place.
2. (transitive) To store or pack something in a space-saving manner and over a long time.
   • Yet everybody knows that a cargo properly stowed in a seaworthy craft reaches market in much the better condition than by rail, though perhaps it is some hours longer on the way.1922, James A. Cooper, Sheila of Big Wreck Cove
3. (transitive) To arrange, pack, or fill something tightly or closely.
4. (transitive) To dispose of, lodge, or hide somebody somewhere.
   • Ar.[…]The Marriners all vnder hatches ſtowed, / Who, with a Charme ioynd to their ſuffred labour / I haue left aſleep :[…]1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published...
5. (obsolete, slang, transitive) To cease; to stop doing something.
   • But when I strove my flame to tell, / Says she, 'Come, stow that patter, / If you're a cove wot likes a gal, / Vy don't you stand some gatter?' / In course I instantly complied— / Two brimming quarts of porter, / With sev'ral goes of gin beside, / Drain'd Bet the Coaley's daughter.Bet the Coaley's Daughter (traditional song)
   • “Come, come,” said Silver; “stow this talk. He’s dead, and he don’t walk, that I know; leastways, he won’t walk by day, and you may lay to that. Care killed a cat. Fetch ahead for the doubloons.”1883, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island

Interjection

1. (obsolete, transitive) A cry used by falconers to call their birds back down to hand.
   • His seconde hawke wexyd gery […]
     on the rode loft
     She perkyd her to rest.
     The fauconer then was prest,
     Came runnynge with a dow,
     And cryed, ‘Stow, stow, stow!’
     But she wold not bow.c. 1503–1512, John Skelton, Ware the Hauke; republished in John Scattergood, editor, John Skelton: The Complete English Poems, 1983, →OCLC, page 63, lines 66, 69–74

Proper noun capitalized: Stow

Scotland/ˈstaʊ/

Stow

1. A surname.
2. A village in the Scottish Borders council area, Scotland (OS grid ref NT4544).
3. A village and civil parish in West Lindsey district, Lincolnshire, England (OS grid ref SK8881).
4. The alternative spelling of Stowe in Shropshire, England.
5. A small town in Oxford County, Maine, United States.
6. A town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States.
7. A city in Summit County, Ohio, United States.