farrow
1 Americannoun
verb (used with object)
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farrows,
present (3rd person singular)
-
farrowed,
past participle, past
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farrowing
present participle
verb (used without object)
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farrows,
present (3rd person singular)
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farrowed,
past participle, past
-
farrowing
present participle
adjective
noun
verb
adjective
Usage
What does farrow mean? A farrow is a litter of piglets. Farrow can also be used as a verb meaning (for a mother pig) to produce a litter of piglets. Unrelatedly, farrow can also be used as an adjective describing a cow that is not pregnant in a given year—one year a cow may have baby cows, and the next year it may be farrow. Example: Three of our sows successfully farrowed—each had a farrow of 12 piglets.
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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farrowsimple
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farrowssimple
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have farrowedperfect
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has farrowedperfect
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am farrowingprogressive
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are farrowingprogressive
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is farrowingprogressive
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have been farrowingperfect progressive
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has been farrowingperfect progressive
Past
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farrowedsimple
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had farrowedperfect
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was farrowingprogressive
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were farrowingprogressive
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had been farrowingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of farrow1
First recorded before 900; Middle English farwen “to give birth to a litter of pigs,” derivative of Old English fearh “pig” (cognate with Latin porcus ); akin to German Ferkel “young pig”
Origin of farrow2
1485–95; akin to Dutch dialect verwe- (in verwekoe barren cow), Old English fearr ox
Vocabulary lists containing farrow
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
SG: I like to think we’ve ploughed our own farrow.
From The Verge ● Apr. 22, 2020
While we were standing there talking, Maury said, “Do you farrow the sows in a farrowing house?”
From The New Yorker ● Jul. 14, 2019
“We raised hogs from farrow to finish, and we had corn, beans, hay and oats. So did everyone around us.”
From The Guardian ● Mar. 9, 2019
That was followed by grilled Washington coast wild salmon with black lentils and baby beets, and platters of smoked Draper Valley chicken with farrow and fava beans.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 30, 2013
The old sow would farrow her young in the out-of-doors.
From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck
When I was pulling the oxen in the fields, my dad would tell me, “The farrows; they should be straight,” for that simple reason.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
Photograph: toby farrow @ farrows creative Who are they?
From The Guardian ● Aug. 11, 2011
Fifty sows with farrows were penned in each, bedded upon the earth, while the boars lay outside—fewer by far, as those well-fatted were for the suitors’ table, fine pork, sent by the swineherd every day.
From "The Odyssey" by Homer
Lying among the farrows, the soldiers slept with the horses, heads bowed, eyes closed.
From The Underdogs, a Story of the Mexican Revolution by E. (Enrique) Munguía
The sow farrows pigs, They go to the spit of the lord.
From Castle Rackrent by Maria Edgeworth
In farmsteads everywhere newly farrowed piglets were lying like pink sausages at the teats of deflated sows.
From Time Magazine Archive
It also farrowed Gerald Templer, a thin, deceptively fragile-looking, tough soldier.
From Time Magazine Archive
Sows that were counted on for litters of eight or nine farrowed only six or seven.
From Time Magazine Archive
Of Barke's expected 300 pigs, only 175 were farrowed, only 100 survived.
From Time Magazine Archive
"Ah! pigs, Peter," nodded Old Amos, "Dutton's pigs; 'is sow farrowed last week—at three in the marnin'—nine of 'em!"
From The Broad Highway by Jeffery Farnol
The government is also looking at ending the use of "confinement systems" in farming including caged hens and pig farrowing crates, which are used to contain sows during birth and nursing.
From BBC ● Dec. 21, 2025
“Particularly in the farrowing shed, they’re very nurturing people,” she says.
From Science Magazine ● Nov. 21, 2023
Chickens meander through the farrowing shed, where sows recline in roomy pens with their suckling piglets.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 13, 2022
While we were standing there talking, Maury said, “Do you farrow the sows in a farrowing house?”
From The New Yorker ● Jul. 14, 2019
The trouble if any, which arises from the owner or pig man being in the sty with the farrowing sow almost invariably arises from the absence of a sympathetic feeling between the two.
From The Pig Breeding, Rearing, and Marketing by Sanders Spencer
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
