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

“No building will ever achieve the eloquence of this void in speaking of the event. We do not hallow this ground simply by filling it with buildings.”

From Washington Post ● Mar. 30, 2020

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

The “I don’t know why” response rings hallow.

From Washington Times ● Mar. 8, 2016

I spell hallow, which is a great word but also opens up a triple-word-score spot for her.

From "Will Grayson, Will Grayson" by John Green and David Levithan

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

When the shrines through the foliage are gleaming half-shown, And each hallows the hour by some rites of its own.

From Thomas Moore by Stephen Lucius Gwynn

Yes, time hallows in after days the scene and hour, and softens the remembrance of it even as age softens the touches of a picture.

From William Shakespeare as he lived. An Historical Tale by Henry Curling

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 Elizabeth Schoffen

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 Maturin Murray Ballou

“I’m really excited to wear the sacred bratty curls and the hallowed hoop skirt,” Alaska said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2026

Today we take the hallowed status of “My Neighbor Totoro” for granted.

From Salon ● Jul. 15, 2026

Outside the Azteca Stadium on Friday for the opening match against South Africa, fans quoted a range of figures they'd paid for one of the hallowed tickets.

From BBC ● Jun. 16, 2026

The 60-year-old Azteca, which hosts the opening game of the 2026 World Cup on Thursday, is a hallowed name across the soccer universe.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026

It’s a pretty good testament to the transformative power of rhetoric that Gettysburg remains so hallowed in the annals of American history.

From "Words Like Loaded Pistols" by Sam Leith

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

Not into words can I distil The pity or the pain Which hallowing all that lonely hill Cried out "Refrain, refrain," Then breathed from earth and sky and sea, "Herein you did it unto Me."

From Collected Poems Volume Two by Alfred Noyes

I once had a thought of such a life; and even the memory of it, like the prayers we have learned in our childhood, has a hallowing influence over after years.

From The Fortunes Of Glencore by Charles James Lever

Related Words

• sanctify