hallow

American  

[hal-oh] / ˈhæl oʊ /

verb (used with object)

• hallows,
  present (3rd person singular)
• hallowed,
  past participle,  past
• hallowing
  present participle

1. to make holy; sanctify; consecrate.

2. to honor as holy; consider sacred; venerate.

   to hallow a battlefield.

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hallow British  

/ ˈhæləʊ /

verb

1. to consecrate or set apart as being holy

2. to venerate as being holy

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• hallower
  noun

Inflected Forms

Participles

• hallowing
  present
• hallowed
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• hallow
  simple
• hallows
  simple
• have hallowed
  perfect
• has hallowed
  perfect
• am hallowing
  progressive
• are hallowing
  progressive
• is hallowing
  progressive
• have been hallowing
  perfect progressive
• has been hallowing
  perfect progressive

Past

• hallowed
  simple
• had hallowed
  perfect
• was hallowing
  progressive
• were hallowing
  progressive
• had been hallowing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will hallow
  simple
• will have hallowed
  perfect
• will be hallowing
  progressive
• will have been hallowing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of hallow

First recorded before 900; Middle English hal(o)wen, Old English hālgian (cognate with German heiligen, Old Norse helga ), derivative of hālig “consecrated, sacred, holy”; see holy

Explanation

To hallow is to bless, consecrate, or render holy by means of religious rites, especially significant religious places or the relics of saints. As a noun, hallow means "saint." The word for our popular holiday Halloween is a shortened form of "All Hallows' Eve," or "All Saints' Eve," which precedes All Saints' Day. In the verb form, the synonyms bless and sanctify are more commonly used these days, but hallow still appears in such phrases as "hallowed ground" (ground that's been blessed) and the Christian "hallowed be Thy name" (a phrase from "The Lord's Prayer," where hallowed means "revered").

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

hallow hallows hallowed hallowing

Happily for America, we rely on lessons of experience where we hallow and raise not men but ideas and virtues.

From Time ● Sep. 16, 2016

Jerry Chappell, 55, lives in a small hallow in the hills, an hour away from the Kingsport clinic where he gets his prescription.

From The Guardian ● May 9, 2016

Abraham Lincoln stated it succinctly at Gettysburg with his series of negatives: “We can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground.”

From Washington Post ● May 24, 2015

Rarely does he wield it with power — instead, his soft hallow scrape is marked by flexibility and candor.

From New York Times ● Apr. 20, 2015

During passage through several thousand years it transformed into hail, hale, health, hallow, holy, whole, and heal, and all of these still move together through our minds.

From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas

He came on a meadow between two streams where the flower called white hallows grew thick, and as these blossoms are rare and prized by healers, he came back again next day.

From "A Wizard of Earthsea" by Ursula K. Le Guin

Mercy among the virtues is like the moon among the stars,—not so sparkling and vivid as many, but dispensing a calm radiance that hallows the whole.

From Pearls of Thought by Ballou, Maturin Murray

Those brilliant gems are being added to other hallows, too.

From The Demands of Rome Her Own Story of Thirty-One Years as a Sister of Charity in the Order of the Sisters of Charity of Providence of the Roman Catholic Church by Schoffen, Elizabeth

Grief hallows hearts, even while it ages heads.—P.

From Pearls of Thought by Ballou, Maturin Murray

But, Ian, no one that has been 'called by name' can ever forget the voice that called him; it haunts and hallows life forevermore.

From Playing With Fire by Barr, Amelia Edith Huddleston

Three episodes of “The Man Will Burn” have aired with very little interrogation of how well it lives up to its hallowed 10 Principles, one of which is Radical Inclusion.

From Salon ● Jul. 24, 2026

Serena has 14 titles on the hallowed grass court — six in doubles, one mixed doubles and seven in singles.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 16, 2026

On Thursday afternoon, in the steamy heat of the Mexican capital, this hallowed stadium became the first to host matches at three different World Cups.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 11, 2026

The final one of the Ellas - Ella Stevens - started racing when she was just six and has since followed in hallowed racing steps.

From BBC ● May 21, 2026

The warriors roared their approval, stomping their feet and pounding the shafts of their longspears hard against the hallowed stone in triumph.

From "Beasts of Prey" by Ayana Gray

Now “Becoming” is the hallowing of her second coming: as an unprecedented, potentially billion-dollar American brand.

From The New Yorker ● Dec. 6, 2018

The Central Committee's hallowing of that 1976 ceremony was a subtle way for Teng to humiliate his old enemies.

From Time Magazine Archive

At St. Louis they drove across the prairie through flowering and fragrant shrubs, past orchards bending and breaking with loads of fruit, where boys rode by on calico ponies "hallowing & laughing."

From Time Magazine Archive

But the hallowing hand of time, the soothing remembrance of unspeakable mercies, and the call to noble duty, have done much to restore the strength, if not the joy, of former days.

From Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 6 A series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more than 200 of the most prominent personages in History by Horne, Charles F. (Charles Francis)

I perceive also—I perceived, while Tony and the children stood round that picture—that Rosie is still here, in this house, hallowing it a little.

From A Poor Man's House by Reynolds, Stephen Sydney

Related Words

• sanctify