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taw¹

(tô)

tr.v. tawed, taw·ing, taws

To convert (an animal hide) into white leather by treating it with a mixture containing alum and salt.

[Middle English tawen, from Old English tawian, to prepare.]

tawer n.

taw²

(tô)

1. Chiefly Southern US A large, fancy marble used for shooting.

2. The line from which a player shoots in marbles.

3. A game of marbles.

intr.v. tawed, taw·ing, taws

To shoot a marble.

[Origin unknown.]

taw³

(täf, tôf)

Variant of tav.

tav also taw

(täf, tôf)

The last letter of the Hebrew alphabet. See Table at alphabet.

[Hebrew tāw, of Phoenician origin; see tww in the Appendix of Semitic roots.]

tawse or taws

(tôz)

pl.n.
Chiefly Scots

1. A whip or leather thong used to drive a spinning top.

2. A leather whip divided at the end into strips, formerly used to punish children: "Solider Aristotle played the taws / Upon the bottom of a king of kings" (William Butler Yeats).

[From TAW¹.]

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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