Word for the day: grow

grow |ɡrəʊ|                                                            *crecer (en Español)

 
DEFINITION
verb ( past grew |gro͞o|; past participle grown |grōn| ) [ no obj. ]1 (of a living thing) undergo natural development by increasing in size and changing physically; progress to maturity: he would watch Nick grow to manhood | (as adj.growing) : the linguistic skills acquired by the growing child| (as adj.grown) : the stupidity of grown men hitting a ball with a stick.• (of a plant) germinate and develop: seaweed grows in the ocean.• [ with obj. ] produce by cultivation: more and more land was needed to grow crops for export.• [ with obj. ] allow or cause (a part of the body) to grow or develop: [ with obj. ] : she grew her hair long.• (of something abstract) come into existence and develop: the Vietnamese diaspora grew out of their national tragedy.2 become larger or greater over a period of time; increase: turnover grew to more than $100,000 within three years |(as adj.growing) : a growing number of people are coming to realize this.• [ with obj. ] cause (something, esp. a business) to expand or increase.3 [ with complement ] become gradually or increasingly: sharing our experiences, we grew braver.• [ with infinitive ] (of a person) come to feel or know something over time: she grew to like the friendly, quiet people at the farm.

PHRASESgrow on trees[ usu. with negative ] informal be plentiful or easily obtained: money doesn't grow on trees.
PHRASAL VERBSgrow apart(of two or more people) become gradually estranged.grow intobecome as a result of natural development or gradual increase: Swampscott grew into a fishing village of about three hundred people by the 1850s. • become large enough to wear (a garment) comfortably.grow onbecome gradually more appealing to (someone): a house has to grow on you.grow outdisappear because of normal growth: Colette's old perm had almost grown out.grow out ofbecome too large to wear (a garment): blazers that they grew out of. • become too mature to retain (a childish habit): most children grow out of tantrums by the time they're three.grow upadvance to maturity; spend one's childhood and adolescence: I grew up in a small town in Michigan. • [often in imperative ] begin to behave or think sensibly and realistically: grow up, sister, and come into the real world.• arise; develop: a school of painting grew up in Cuzco.
DERIVATIVESgrowableadjective
ORIGIN Old English grōwan(originally referring chiefly to plants), of Germanic origin; related to Dutch groeien, also to grass and green.usage: Although grow is typically intransitive, as in he grew two inches taller over the summer, its use as a transitive verb has long been standard in such phrases as grow crops and grow a beard. Recently, however, grow has extended its transitive sense and has become popular in business, economics, and government contexts: growing the industry, growing your business, growing your investment, and so on.

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