sower

[ soh-er ]

noun

1. a person, machine, or device that scatters seed over the earth for the purpose of growth:

   The plows went up and down the fields, the sowers plodding after them.

   This sower has a capacity of 6 bags of grass seed, ideal for use on small farms or golf courses.

2. a person who introduces or seeks to foster a certain attitude, feeling, condition, etc., in others:

   The Mayan god Tezcatlipoca, thought to incite wars, was called Necocyautl, meaning "sower of discord on both sides."

Word History and Origins

Origin of sower¹

sow ¹( def ) + -er ¹( def )

Example Sentences

This ultimately sowed the seeds of acceptance and made these technologies more approachable for businesses.

From Search Engine Watch

It’s not crazy to hope that the intellectual seeds sowed in this pandemic year — information and entanglement, cross-bred with wormholes and holograms — will one day bear glorious fruit.

From Quanta Magazine

That development sowed confusion, led to dueling statements from Pfizer and federal officials about who was to blame, and raised questions about whether a promise to deliver shots to 20 million people by the end of the year would be kept.

From Washington Post

Two days after editing, the embryos—by then a few cells big—are implanted into surrogate sows.

From MIT Technology Review

During a virtual tour, a worker carried a smartphone through the editing lab into the gestation area, where sows spend nine months until giving birth—“farrowing” is the farmer’s term.

From MIT Technology Review

I am to be introduced to the greatest sower of ideas of the century, the author of the Social Contract, Rousseau.

From Project Gutenberg

The evil seed thus sown did not fail to take root and bring forth its fruit, just as the sower intended.

From Project Gutenberg

The field was evidently now open, and waiting for the sower of the precious seed of the Word.

From Project Gutenberg

An' so 'e did, till 'e married that day six months an' take to the drink in sower. '

From Project Gutenberg

More saving of labor still is the horse sower, which is simply the hand sower on a larger scale.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• grower
• laborer
• peasant
• producer
• rancher