Words whose 4th letter is W

Answer (v. i.) To be or act in conformity, or by way of accommodation, correspondence, relation, or proportion; to conform; to correspond; to suit; -- usually with to.

Answer (n.) A counter-statement of facts in a course of pleadings; a confutation of what the other party has alleged; a responsive declaration by a witness in reply to a question. In Equity, it is the usual form of defense to the complainant's charges in his bill.

Awlwort (n.) A plant (Subularia aquatica), with awl-shaped leaves.

Batwing (a.) Shaped like a bat's wing; as, a bat's-wing burner.

Blow (v. t.) To burst, shatter, or destroy by an explosion; -- usually with up, down, open, or similar adverb; as, to blow up a building.

Blower (n.) The whale; -- so called by seamen, from the circumstance of its spouting up a column of water.

Blowgun (n.) A tube, as of cane or reed, sometimes twelve feet long, through which an arrow or other projectile may be impelled by the force of the breath. It is a weapon much used by certain Indians of America and the West Indies; -- called also blowpipe, and blowtube. See Sumpitan.

Blowtube (n.) A long wrought iron tube, on the end of which the workman gathers a quantity of "metal" (melted glass), and through which he blows to expand or shape it; -- called also blowing tube, and blowpipe.

Blowze (n.) A ruddy, fat-faced woman; a wench.

Blowzed (a.) Having high color from exposure to the weather; ruddy-faced; blowzy; disordered.

Blowzy (a.) Coarse and ruddy-faced; fat and ruddy; high colored; frowzy.

Bobwhite (n.) The common quail of North America (Colinus, or Ortyx, Virginianus); -- so called from its note.

Browed (a.) Having (such) a brow; -- used in composition; as, dark-browed, stern-browed.

Brownback (n.) The dowitcher or red-breasted snipe. See Dowitcher.

Brownie (n.) An imaginary good-natured spirit, who was supposed often to perform important services around the house by night, such as thrashing, churning, sweeping.

Browse (n.) To eat or nibble off, as the tender branches of trees, shrubs, etc.; -- said of cattle, sheep, deer, and some other animals.

Braw (a.) Well-dressed; handsome; smart; brave; -- used of persons or their clothing, etc.; as, a braw lad.

Chow (n.) A prefecture or district of the second rank in China, or the chief city of such a district; -- often part of the name of a city, as in Foochow.

Chow (n.) A prefecture or district of the second rank in China, or the chief city of such a district; -- often part of the name of a city, as in Foochow.

Chewink (n.) An american bird (Pipilo erythrophthalmus) of the Finch family, so called from its note; -- called also towhee bunting and ground robin.

Clown (n.) A man of coarse nature and manners; an awkward fellow; an ill-bred person; a boor.

Clown (v. i.) To act as a clown; -- with it.

Crawford (n.) A Crawford peach; a well-known freestone peach, with yellow flesh, first raised by Mr. William Crawford, of New Jersey.

Crow (v. i.) The mesentery of a beast; -- so called by butchers.

Crowberry (n.) A heathlike plant of the genus Empetrum, and its fruit, a black, scarcely edible berry; -- also called crakeberry.

Crowflower (n.) A kind of campion; according to Gerarde, the Lychnis Flos-cuculi.

Crown (n.) The person entitled to wear a regal or imperial crown; the sovereign; -- with the definite article.

Crown (n.) The vertex or top of an arch; -- applied generally to about one third of the curve, but in a pointed arch to the apex only.

Crown (n.) A coin stamped with the image of a crown; hence,a denomination of money; as, the English crown, a silver coin of the value of five shillings sterling, or a little more than $1.20; the Danish or Norwegian crown, a money of account, etc., worth nearly twenty-seven cents.

Crows (n. pl.) A tribe of Indians of the Dakota stock, living in Montana; -- also called Upsarokas.

Crownland (n.) In Austria-Hungary, one of the provinces, or largest administrative divisions of the monarchy; as, the crownland of Lower Austria.

Cutwater (n.) A sea bird of the Atlantic (Rhynchops nigra); -- called also black skimmer, scissorsbill, and razorbill. See Skimmer.

Dauw (n.) The striped quagga, or Burchell's zebra, of South Africa (Asinus Burchellii); -- called also peechi, or peetsi.

Draw (v. t.) To require (so great a depth, as of water) for floating; -- said of a vessel; to sink so deep in (water); as, a ship draws ten feet of water.

Draw (v. t.) To trace by scent; to track; -- a hunting term.

Draw (v. i.) To have efficiency as an epispastic; to act as a sinapism; -- said of a blister, poultice, etc.

Draw (v. i.) To move; to come or go; literally, to draw one's self; -- with prepositions and adverbs; as, to draw away, to move off, esp. in racing, to get in front; to obtain the lead or increase it; to draw back, to retreat; to draw level, to move up even (with another); to come up to or overtake another; to draw off, to retire or retreat; to draw on, to advance; to draw up, to form in array; to draw near, nigh, or towards, to approach; to draw together, to come together, to collect.

Draw (v. i.) To make a draft or written demand for payment of money deposited or due; -- usually with on or upon.

Drawbench (n.) A machine in which strips of metal are drawn through a drawplate; especially, one in which wire is thus made; -- also called drawing bench.

Drawcansir (n.) A blustering, bullying fellow; a pot-valiant braggart; a bully.

Drawee (n.) The person on whom an order or bill of exchange is drawn; -- the correlative of drawer.

Drawer (n.) One who draws a bill of exchange or order for payment; -- the correlative of drawee.

Drawer (n.) An under-garment worn on the lower limbs.

Drawknife (n.) A joiner's tool having a blade with a handle at each end, used to shave off surfaces, by drawing it toward one; a shave; -- called also drawshave, and drawing shave.

Drawloom (n.) A kind of loom used in weaving figured patterns; -- called also drawboy.

Draw (v. t.) To play (a short-length ball directed at the leg stump) with an incDrown (v. t.) To overpower; to overcome; to extinguish; -- said especially of sound.

Flews (n. pl.) The pendulous or overhanging lateral parts of the upper lip of dogs, especially prominent in hounds; -- called also chaps. See Illust. of Bloodhound.

Flow (v. i.) To rise, as the tide; -- opposed to ebb; as, the tide flows twice in twenty-four hours.

Flow (n.) A low-lying piece of watery land; -- called also flow moss and flow bog.

Flowering (a.) Having conspicuous flowers; -- used as an epithet with many names of plants; as, flowering ash; flowering dogwood; flowering almond, etc.

Flown () p. p. of Fly; -- often used with the auxiliary verb to be; as, the birds are flown.

Frowey (a.) Working smoothly, or without splitting; -- said of timber.

Gadwall (n.) A large duck (Anas strepera), valued as a game bird, found in the northern parts of Europe and America; -- called also gray duck.

Godwit (n.) One of several species of long-billed, wading birds of the genus Limosa, and family Tringidae. The European black-tailed godwit (Limosa limosa), the American marbled godwit (L. fedoa), the Hudsonian godwit (L. haemastica), and others, are valued as game birds. Called also godwin.

Grow (v. i.) To increase in size by a natural and organic process; to increase in bulk by the gradual assimilation of new matter into the living organism; -- said of animals and vegetables and their organs.

Growler (n.) The large-mouthed black bass.

Growler (n.) A four-wheeled cab.

Gunwale (n.) The upper edge of a vessel's or boat's side; the uppermost wale of a ship (not including the bulwarks); or that piece of timber which reaches on either side from the quarter-deck to the forecastle, being the uppermost bend, which finishes the upper works of the hull.

Huswife (v. t.) To manage with frugality; -- said of a woman.

Inswept (a.) Narrowed at the forward end; -- said of an automobile frame when the side members are closer together at the forward end than at the rear.

Know (v. i.) To have knowledge; to have a clear and certain perception; to possess wisdom, instruction, or information; -- often with of.

Knowledge (v. i.) That which is or may be known; the object of an act of knowing; a cognition; -- chiefly used in the plural.

Knowledge (v. i.) Sexual intercourse; -- usually preceded by carnal; as, carnal knowledge.

Lacwork (n.) Ornamentation by means of lacquer painted or carved, or simply colored, sprinkled with gold or the like; -- said especially of Oriental work of this kind.

Leeward (a.) Pertaining to, or in the direction of, the part or side toward which the wind blows; -- opposed to windward; as, a leeward berth; a leeward ship.

Madwort (n.) A genus of cruciferous plants (Alyssum) with white or yellow flowers and rounded pods. A. maritimum is the commonly cultivated sweet alyssum, a fragrant white-flowered annual.

Matweed (n.) A name of several maritime grasses, as the sea sand-reed (Ammophila arundinacea) which is used in Holland to bind the sand of the seacoast dikes (see Beach grass, under Beach); also, the Lygeum Spartum, a Mediterranean grass of similar habit.

Mudwall (n.) The European bee-eater. See Bee-eater.

Mugweed (n.) A slender European weed (Galium Cruciata); -- called also crossweed.

Mugwort (n.) A somewhat aromatic composite weed (Artemisia vulgaris), at one time used medicinally; -- called also motherwort.

Norwegium (n.) A rare metallic element, of doubtful identification, said to occur in the copper-nickel of Norway.

Outward (a.) Forming the superficial part; external; exterior; -- opposed to inward; as, an outward garment or layer.

Outwit (n.) The faculty of acquiring wisdom by observation and experience, or the wisdom so acquired; -- opposed to inwit.

Pigweed (n.) A name of several annual weeds. See Goosefoot, and Lamb's-quarters.

Redwing (n.) A European thrush (Turdus iliacus). Its under wing coverts are orange red. Called also redwinged thrush. (b) A North American passerine bird (Agelarius ph/niceus) of the family Icteridae. The male is black, with a conspicuous patch of bright red, bordered with orange, on each wing. Called also redwinged blackbird, red-winged troupial, marsh blackbird, and swamp blackbird.

Ribwort (n.) A species of plantain (Plantago lanceolata) with long, narrow, ribbed leaves; -- called also rib grass, ripple grass, ribwort plantain.

Sapwood (n.) The alburnum, or part of the wood of any exogenous tree next to the bark, being that portion of the tree through which the sap flows most freely; -- distinguished from heartwood.

Scow (n.) A large flat-bottomed boat, having broad, square ends.

Showbread (n.) Bread of exhibition; loaves to set before God; -- the term used in translating the various phrases used in the Hebrew and Greek to designate the loaves of bread which the priest of the week placed before the Lord on the golden table in the sanctuary. They were made of fine flour unleavened, and were changed every Sabbath. The loaves, twelve in number, represented the twelve tribes of Israel. They were to be eaten by the priests only, and in the Holy Place.

Skew (a.) Turned or twisted to one side; situated obliquely; skewed; -- chiefly used in technical phrases.

Skewbald (a.) Marked with spots and patches of white and some color other than black; -- usually distinguished from piebald, in which the colors are properly white and black. Said of horses.

Slow (v. i.) To go slower; -- often with up; as, the train slowed up before crossing the bridge.

Smew (n.) small European merganser (Mergus albellus) which has a white crest; -- called also smee, smee duck, white merganser, and white nun.

Snow (n.) A square-rigged vessel, differing from a brig only in that she has a trysail mast close abaft the mainmast, on which a large trysail is hoisted.

Snow (v. i.) To fall in or as snow; -- chiefly used impersonally; as, it snows; it snowed yesterday.

Snowball (n.) The Guelder-rose.

Snowbird (n.) Any finch of the genus Junco which appears in flocks in winter time, especially J. hyemalis in the Eastern United States; -- called also blue snowbird. See Junco.

Snowshoe (n.) A slight frame of wood three or four feet long and about one third as wide, with thongs or cords stretched across it, and having a support and holder for the foot; -- used by persons for walking on soft snow.

Spawn (v. t.) To bring forth; to generate; -- used in contempt.

Spawn (v. i.) To issue, as offspring; -- used contemptuously.

Spawn (v. t.) Any product or offspring; -- used contemptuously.

Stew (v. t.) A brothel; -- usually in the plural.

Thaw (v. i.) To melt, dissolve, or become fluid; to soften; -- said of that which is frozen; as, the ice thaws.

Thaw (v. i.) To become so warm as to melt ice and snow; -- said in reference to the weather, and used impersonally.

Thewed (a.) Furnished with thews or muscles; as, a well-thewed limb.

Trawl (n.) A large bag net attached to a beam with iron frames at its ends, and dragged at the bottom of the sea, -- used in fishing, and in gathering forms of marine life from the sea bottom.

Undwelt (a.) Not lived (in); -- with in.

Whew (n. & interj.) A sound like a half-formed whistle, expressing astonishment, scorn, or dislike.

Wigwag (v. t. & i.) Act or art of wigwagging; a message wigwagged; -- chiefly attributive; as, the wigwag code.

Wigwam (n.) An Indian cabin or hut, usually of a conical form, and made of a framework of poles covered with hides, bark, or mats; -- called also tepee.

Wrawful (a.) Ill-tempered.

Yarwhip (n.) The European bar-tailed godwit; -- called also yardkeep, and yarwhelp. See Godwit.

About the author

Mark McCracken Author: Mark McCracken is a corporate trainer and author living in Higashi Osaka, Japan. He is the author of thousands of online articles as well as the Business English textbook, "25 Business Skills in English".

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