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

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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

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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

For a self-proclaimed straight shooter, Rousey rang hallow during fight week when she said on a pre-bout conference call with media that if fans wanted another bout with Tate so did she.

From The Guardian ● Aug. 2, 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

For it led up on to the mountain to a high hallow where only the kings had been wont to go.

From "The Return of the King" by J.R.R. Tolkien

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

The same tranquil beauty, as of old, hallows this place; the same sense of awe and mystery broods over its silent shrines of everlasting renown.

From Shakespeare's England by William Winter

He hallows every heart he once has swayed, And when his presence we no longer share, Still leaves —— as a relic there.

From English Synonyms and Antonyms With Notes on the Correct Use of Prepositions by James Champlin Fernald

The dearest boon from Heaven above, Is bliss which brightly hallows home, ’Tis sunlight to the world of love, And life’s pure wine without its foam.

From Sketches of the Fair Sex, in All Parts of the World by Anonymous

The Greek reverence accepts, hallows and adorns an older faith, which it feels to be repugnant and even alien, but none the less recognises as human and inevitable.

From Myth, Ritual And Religion, Vol. 2 (of 2) by Andrew Lang

Many victims’ families and advocacy groups, some of whom vowed to lay down in front of bulldozers, objected to rebuilding on the site because they considered it a graveyard and hallowed ground.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026

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

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2026

But none of them match this show’s sense of place – not even the hallowed “Frasier.”

From Salon ● Jul. 1, 2026

Every day he can be seen flying above Centre Court -- but only by the eagle-eyed who arrive between 4:00 am and 9:00 am before the public is admitted to the hallowed grounds.

From Barron's ● Jul. 1, 2026

My palms need to feel the heat of a hallowed flame whose blessing I bring to my eyes and forehead.

From "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel

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

And what a charming picture he gives us of the peaceful, hallowing influences about him in that quiet old parsonage!

From Life of Oliver Wendell Holmes by E. E. Brown

The discoveries of geology are found to fill up the old religious truths with a new life, and to derive from them in turn a hallowing glory.

From A Manual of the Antiquity of Man by J. P. (John Patterson) MacLean

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Related Words

• sanctify

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