What does yowed mean?
Yowed is the past tense of the now archaic verb yowe. Its clearest sense is “gave birth to” or “brought forth offspring,” especially of a female animal, as in the traditional description of a ewe yowing a lamb. In another older usage, yowed meant “owned” or “possessed,” paralleling the past tense owed. Both senses are literary or historical rather than ordinary modern usage, so a present-day reader will usually understand the word as a vivid animal expression, even if its inflection initially looks unfamiliar. The form is especially interesting because it preserves a native English verb attested in Old English for bringing forth young, rather than a recent borrowing. It is therefore a useful piece of historical vocabulary, but a deliberately archaic or literary choice in contemporary prose.
verb (past tense)Yowed is the past tense of yowe. It means “gave birth to” or “brought forth offspring,” especially of an animal; in another older usage, it means “owned” or “possessed.”
- Gave birth to young or brought forth offspring, especially of an animal.
- Owned or possessed.
"The ewe yowed a lamb in early spring."
"The ewe yowed a lamb in early spring."
"The abbey yowed its rights over the surrounding land."
Yowed preserves a native English verb once used for animals bringing forth their young—and, less figuratively, for owning what one possessed.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of yowed
For the “give birth” sense, yowed is the past tense of yowe, a Middle English continuation of Old English ġeþōwan, “to give birth, bring forth.” That Old English verb belongs to a Germanic family that includes Old Norse fæða, Danish føde, and Middle Dutch voughen, all associated with producing or bringing forth offspring. The verb’s separate older English sense “own, possess” has a different historical derivation, so the two senses should not be represented as a simple semantic extension of one common root.
Related word forms
How yowed is actually used
Yowed is archaic or literary rather than part of ordinary modern English. The animal-birth sense is the more readily recognized, while the ownership sense is also historical.
Easily confused with yowed
Yowed is the past tense of yowe in the sense “gave birth to” or, archaically, “owned”; owed is the past tense of owe.