noun
farrow
FA-roh
noun
1
A litter of baby pigs born together.
"The sow produced a farrow of nine piglets."
"Farmers check each farrow for weak or underweight piglets."
verb
1
To give birth to piglets.
"The sow is due to farrow any day now."
"Most pigs farrow twice a year on a commercial farm."
adj
1
Not currently pregnant or producing young, used of livestock, especially cows or sows in a given breeding season.
"The farmer sold off the farrow cows before winter."
"A farrow sow is one that failed to conceive that season."
How to Use Farrow
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishA word from farming: as a noun it means a litter of piglets, as a verb it means giving birth to them, and as an adjective it describes an animal that isn't currently breeding.
When to use it
Specialist agricultural vocabulary, rarely used outside farming contexts.
Common pairings
farrow of piglets
due to farrow
a farrow cow
Word Forms
farrowed past tense, farrows plural, Farrows plural, farrows singular
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The sow produced a _____ of nine piglets.
Etymology
From Old English fearh ("piglet"), tracing back to a very old Indo-European root also behind Latin porcus — making "farrow" a distant relative of "pork."