stew

¹

[stoo, styoo]

verb (used with object)

1. to cook (food) by simmering or slow boiling.

verb (used without object)

1. to undergo cooking by simmering or slow boiling.

2. Informal.,  to fret, worry, or fuss.

   He stewed about his chaotic state of affairs all day.

3. to feel uncomfortable due to a hot, humid, stuffy atmosphere, as in a closed room; swelter.

noun

1. a preparation of meat, fish, or other food cooked by stewing, especially a mixture of meat and vegetables.

   Synonyms: ragout, casserole

2. Informal.,  a state of agitation, uneasiness, or worry.

3. a brothel; whorehouse.

4. stews, a neighborhood occupied chiefly by brothels.

5. Obsolete.,  a vessel for boiling or stewing.

stew

²

[stoo, styoo]

noun

Slang.

1. a male or female flight attendant.

stew

¹

/ stjuː /

noun

1. 1. a dish of meat, fish, or other food, cooked by stewing

   2. ( as modifier )

      stew pot

2. informal,  a difficult or worrying situation or a troubled state (esp in the phrase in a stew )

3. a heterogeneous mixture

   a stew of people of every race

4. archaic,  (usually plural) a brothel

5. obsolete,  a public room for hot steam baths

verb

1. to cook or cause to cook by long slow simmering

2. informal,  (intr) to be troubled or agitated

3. informal,  (intr) to be oppressed with heat or crowding

4. to cause (tea) to become bitter or (of tea) to become bitter through infusing for too long

5. to suffer unaided the consequences of one's actions

stew

²

/ stjuː /

noun

1. a fishpond or fishtank

2. an artificial oyster bed

Other Word Forms

• stewable adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of stew¹

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English steuen, stuwe “to take a sweat bath,” from Middle French estuver, verbal derivative of estuve “sweat room of a bath”; stove ¹

Origin of stew²

An Americanism dating back to 1970–1975; shortening of steward ( def. ) or stewardess ( def. )

Word History and Origins

Origin of stew¹

C14 stuen to take a very hot bath, from Old French estuver, from Vulgar Latin extūfāre (unattested), from _ex- ¹ + (unattested) tūfus vapour, from Greek tuphos

Origin of stew²

C14: from Old French estui, from estoier to shut up, confine, ultimately from Latin studium _study

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

1. stew in one's own juice, to suffer the consequences of one's own actions.

More idioms and phrases containing stew

• in a stew

Synonym Study

See boil ¹.

Example Sentences

"Somehow, out of a very serious and worrying situation, we end up enjoying some of the best stew I've ever cooked in my life," she says.

Read more on BBC

“And turtles? And the fact that, like, it’s all stewed up with, like, chilies and peppers and onions and like, ‘Oh, you really made this a dish?’

Read more on Los Angeles Times

“Butterfly” may be the place you learn about budae-jjigae, or “Army base stew.”

Read more on Los Angeles Times

And, he added, there was an especially macabre practice, a warning that evoked pozole, the signature Mexican corn and meat stew.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Piastri will be stewing over that one for a while, but while Norris inherited the win, there was little to choose between them all weekend.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• boil 
• fret 
• fume 
• seethe 
• simmer