shaw

plural shaws · alternative obsolete shawe

1. dateddialectalA thicket; a small wood or grove.

   The snows are fled away, leaves on the shaws, / And grasses in the mead renew their birth,

   1936, Alfred Edward Housman, More Poems, V, lines 1-2

   2 more examples

   All this herd sire Lamorak / and on the morne sir lamorak took his hors and rode vnto the forest / and there he mette with two knyghtes houynge vnder the wood shawe

   All this heard Sir Lamorak, and on the morn Sir Lamorak took his horse and rode unto the forest, and there he met with two knights hoving under the wood-shaw

   1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter XII, in Le Morte Darthur, book IX

   Thenne said sire kay I requyre you lete vs preue this aduenture / I shal not fayle you said sir Gaherys / and soo they rode that tyme tyl a lake / that was that tyme called the peryllous lake / And there they abode vnder the shawe of the wood

   Then said Sir Kay: I require you let us prove this adventure. I shall not fail you, said Sir Gaheris. And so they rode that time to a lake that was that time called the Perilous Lake, and there they abode under the shaw of the wood

   1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter XXXIX, in Le Morte Darthur, book IX

2. ScotlandThe leaves and tops of vegetables, especially potatoes and turnips.

   Up here the hills were brave with the beauty and the heat of it, but the hayfield was still all a crackling dryness and in the potato park beyond the biggings the shaws drooped red and rusty already.

   1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 35

alternative obsolete shawe

1. slanglifestyleA kind of battle cry or warning.
2. Censored spelling of shit.

plural Shaws

1. countableuncountableAn English topographic surname for someone who lived by a small wood or copse.
2. A placename
   1. countableuncountableA village in Shaw cum Donnington parish and Newbury parish, West Berkshire district, Berkshire (OS red ref SU4868).
   2. countableuncountableA town in Shaw and Crompton parish, Oldham borough, Greater Manchester (OS grid ref SD9308).
   3. countableuncountableA hamlet in Oxenhope parish, City of Bradford, West Yorkshire (OS grid ref SE0234).
   4. countableuncountableA village in Melksham Without parish, Wiltshire (OS grid ref ST8865).
   5. countableuncountableA suburb and ward in west Swindon, Wiltshire (OS grid ref SU1185).
   6. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Neosho County, Kansas, United States.
   7. countableuncountableA small city in Bolivar County and Sunflower County, Mississippi, United States.
   8. countableuncountableA neighbourhood of Washington, D.C., United States.
   9. countableuncountableA neighbourhood of St. Louis, Missouri.