ablow

English

Etymology

From a- +‎ blow.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /əˈbloʊ/

Adjective

ablow (not comparable)

1. (archaic, postpositive) Blossoming, blooming, in blossom.
   • 1867, Augusta Webster, “Lota”, in A Woman Sold and Other Poems, London, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 238:

     [...] The flower breaks from its sheath and is ablow / And gives its richest perfumes. [...]

   • 1891, Lizette Woodworth Reese, “Hallowmas” (poem), in A Handful of Lavender,^[1] Houghton, Mifflin and Company, page 13:

     You know, the year's not always May —

     Oh, once the lilacs were ablow !

   • 1989, Stephen L. Swynn, Garden Wisdom: Or, from One Generation to Another‎^[2], Ayer Publishing, →ISBN, page 110:

     [...] against the green, yet, growing in tilled soil, grow stronger and taller than any daffodil can grow in turf : hundreds of them are ablow together, and the very robustness of their splendour [...]

2. (dated, postpositive) Blowing or being blown; windy.

Usage notes

• Like most adjectives formed from this sense of a-, ablow never serves as an attributive premodifier; one can say “the flowers were ablow”, “ablow, the flowers [...]”, and even “[...] the flowers ablow [...]”, but not *“[...] the ablow flowers”.

Anagrams

• blaow, wobla

Scots

Etymology 1

a- +‎ below, on analogy of above, afore, etc. See also aneth.

Alternative forms

• ablo, ab'low

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /əˈbloː/

Preposition

ablow

1. (often preceded by in) under, below
2. On the lower side or part of; lower down in; further down from.

Adverb

ablow

1. below, beneath, lower down.

References

• “ablow”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC.

Etymology 2

a- +‎ blow

Adverb

ablow

1. In full blow or blossom, abloom

References

• “ablow, adv.²”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC.