shew

present singular third person shews · participle present shewing · past shewed · participle past shewn · participle past shewed · obsolete participle past shewen

1. archaicArchaic spelling of show.

   The section shewing its concavity and handle.

   1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, […], London: […] S. Hooper, […], →OCLC, page xiv

   5 more examples

   NOw the Lord had ſaid vnto Abram, Get thee out of thy countrey, and from thy kinred, and from thy fathers houſe, vnto a land that I will ſhew thee.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 12:1, column 2

   And ſhee ſhewed her mother in lawe with whom ſhee had wrought, and ſaid, The mans name with whom I wrought to day, is Boaz.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Ruth 2:19, column 1

   I give it you without any other design than to shew you that I reckon nothing dear to me, when I want to do you a pleasure.

   1774, “The Governor surprized the Natchez with seven hundred Men.”, in The History of Louisiana: Or of the Western Parts of Virginia and Carolina: Containing a Description of the Countries that Lie on Both Sides of the River Mississippi: with an Account of the Settlements, Inhabitants, Soil, Climate, and Products, London: T. Becket, translation of original by Le Page Du Pratz, page 42

   […] Mr. Willoughby wanted particularly to shew me the place; […]

   1811, [Jane Austen], chapter XIII, in Sense and Sensibility […], volume I, London: […] C[harles] Roworth, […], and published by T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 161

   […] partly because he has a habit of doing it, and partly because it's as well to shew the passengers how cool he is, and what an easy thing it is to drive four-in-hand, when you have had as much practice as he has.

   1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, chapter 28, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC, page 284

plural shews

1. archaicArchaic spelling of show.

   She carefully attended to the ſhews of things, and her opinions, I ſhould have ſaid prejudices, were ſuch as the generality approved of.

   1788, Mary Wollstonecraft, chapter I, in Mary: A Fiction

   4 more examples

   Cannot the body weepe without the eies? / Yes and frame deepeſt canzons of lament, / Cannot the body feare, without it lies / Vpon the outward ſhew of diſcontent: […]

   1597, Thomas Middleton, The Wisdome of Solomon Paraphrased, London: […] Valentine Sems, […]

   And if he did apprehend (as they ſay) nothing by the iudgement of men, he had no need to carrie his mortification ſo farre, as to dompt and ſubject his moſt inward and ſecret motions, and to pull downe the moſt liuely and ſecret prouocations of his fleſh: but it had bene ſufficient for him to haue vſed diſſimulation, and ſome outward ſhew of pretended reformation.

   1620, Peter du Moulin [i.e., Pierre Du Moulin], “The Twentieth Article. Of Iustification by Faith, and What True Faith Is.”, in [anonymous], transl., The Bvckler of the Faith: Or, A Defence of the Confession of Faith of the Reformed Churches in France, against the Obiections of M. [Jean] Arnoux the Iesuite. […], London: […] R[ichard] F[ield] for Nathanael Newbery, […], →OCLC, section 49 (Of the Feare of the Faithfull, and Whether It Derogateth Anything from the Certainty of Saluation), page 144

   Let them make ſhews of reforming while they will, ſo long as the Church is mounted upon the Prelatical Cart, and not as it ought, between the hands of the Miniſters, it will but ſhate and totter; and he that ſets to his hand, though with a good intent to hinder the ſhogging of it, in this unlawful Waggonry wherein it rides, let him beware it be not fatal to him as it was to Uzza.

   1642, John Milton, The Reason of Church-Government Urg’d against Prelaty; republished in A Complete Collection of the Historical, Political, and Miscellaneous Works of John Milton, […], volume I, Amsterdam [actually London: s.n.], 1698, →OCLC, page 203

   I NEXT paſſed into the choir; a ſcene of transformation indeed! I had been accuſtomed to contemplate here a far different order of things. Our profeſſional Merlins have waved their wands to ſome purpoſe; and all view, as their familiars invited me to believe, was to be given up to the momentary glance at an Eidophuſicon ſhew of the Reſurrection filling the Eaſt window in that ſpot late our Lady’s chapel, now the termination of the choir.

   1803 December, an Architect, “The Pursuits of Architectural Innovation. No. LXVI. Salisbury Cathedral continued.”, in The Gentleman’s Magazine, London: […] Nichols and Son, […], page 1122, column 1

1. East Angliapastsimple past of show

   As I travelled, the signposts shew me the way.

present singular third person shews · participle present shewing · participle past shewed · past shewed

1. nonstandardNonstandard spelling of shoo.

   Shew! fly, don't bother me, Shew! fly, don't bother me, Shew! fly, don't bother me, I belong to comp'ny G.

   1869, Frank Campbell, Shew! fly, don't bother me

1. A surname.