ablow

ablow

English

Etymology

    From a- + blow.

    Pronunciation

    • (US) IPA(key): /əˈbloʊ/

    Adjective

    ablow (not comparable)

    1. (archaic, postpositive) Blossoming, blooming, in blossom.
      • 1867, Augusta Webster, “Lota”, in A Woman Sold and Other Poems, London; Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 238:
        [...] The flower breaks from its sheath and is ablow / And gives its richest perfumes. [...]
      • 1891, Lizette Woodworth Reese, “Hallowmas” (poem), in A Handful of Lavender,[1] Houghton, Mifflin and Company, page 13:
        You know, the year's not always May
        Oh, once the lilacs were ablow !
      • 1989, Stephen L. Swynn, Garden Wisdom: Or, from One Generation to Another[2], Ayer Publishing, →ISBN, page 110:
        [...] against the green, yet, growing in tilled soil, grow stronger and taller than any daffodil can grow in turf : hundreds of them are ablow together, and the very robustness of their splendour [...]
    2. (dated, postpositive) Blowing or being blown; windy.

    Usage notes

    • Like most adjectives formed from this sense of a-, ablow never serves as an attributive premodifier; one can say “the flowers were ablow”, “ablow, the flowers [...]”, and even “[...] the flowers ablow [...]”, but not *“[...] the ablow flowers”.

    Anagrams

    Scots

    Etymology 1

    a- +‎ below, on analogy of above, afore, etc. See also aneth.

    Alternative forms

    Pronunciation

    • IPA(key): /əˈbloː/

    Preposition

    ablow

    1. (often preceded by in) under, below
    2. On the lower side or part of; lower down in; further down from.

    Adverb

    ablow

    1. below, beneath, lower down.
    References

    Etymology 2

    a- +‎ blow

    Adverb

    ablow

    1. In full blow or blossom, abloom
    References