Sow vs Sue - What's the difference?
sow | sue |
A female pig.
A channel that conducts molten metal to molds.
A mass of metal solidified in a mold.
* 1957 , H.R. Schubert, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry , p. 160:
(derogatory, slang) A contemptible, often fat woman.
A sowbug.
(military) A kind of covered shed, formerly used by besiegers in filling up and passing the ditch of a besieged place, sapping and mining the wall, etc.
To scatter, disperse, or plant (seeds).
(figurative) To spread abroad; to propagate.
* Addison
(figurative) To scatter over; to besprinkle.
* Sir M. Hale
* Milton
To follow.
* , Bk.XIII, Ch.iv:
* 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), (The Faerie Queen) , III.iv:
(label) To file a legal action against someone, generally a non-criminal action.
(label) To seek by request; to make application; to petition; to entreat; to plead.
To clean (the beak, etc.).
To leave high and dry on shore.
To court.
As verbs the difference between sow and sue
is that sow is to scatter, disperse, or plant (seeds) while sue is .As a noun sow
is a female pig.sow
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) sowe, from (etyl) sugu, from (etyl) (ae)). See also swine .Noun
(en-noun)- In England, it was generally termed a 'sow' , if the weight was above 10 cwts., if below, it was termed a 'pig' from which the present term 'pig iron' is derived.
- (Craig)
Usage notes
The plural form swine is now obsolete in this sense.Synonyms
* (mass of metal solidified in a mold) ingot * (contemptible woman) bitch, cowDerived terms
* make a silk purse of a sow's earSee also
* boar * hog * pigEtymology 2
From (etyl) sowen, from (etyl) .Verb
- When I had sown the field, the day's work was over.
- As you sow , so shall you reap.
- And sow dissension in the hearts of brothers.
- The intellectual faculty is a goodly field, and it is the worst husbandry in the world to sow it with trifles.
- [He] sowed with stars the heaven.
Synonyms
* plant, scatterDerived terms
* reap what one sows *sue
English
Verb
- And the olde knyght seyde unto the yonge knyght, ‘Sir, swith me.’
- though oft looking backward, well she vewd, / Her selfe freed from that foster insolent, / And that it was a knight, which now her sewd , / Yet she no lesse the knight feard, then that villein rude.
