ballow

• IPA^(key): /ˈbæ.ləʊ/
• Rhymes: -æləʊ

From Middle English balowe, balwe, balgh, from Old English bælg, bæliġ (“bag, purse, leathern bottle, pair of bellows, pod, husk”), from Proto-Germanic *balgiz (“bag”). Doublet of belly, bellows, and bulge.

ballow (comparative more ballow, superlative most ballow)

1. (obsolete) Round; pot-bellied.
   • 1612, Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion song 3 p. 40:

     A horse of greater speed, nor yet a righter hound,

     Not any where twixt Kent and Calidon is found.

     Nor yet the levell South can shewe a smoother Race,

     Whereas the ballow Nag out-strips the winds in chase;

Unknown.

ballow (plural ballows)

1. (nautical) Deep water inside a shoal or bar.

• ballow in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913