noun
- a narrow groove made in the ground, especially by a plow.
- a narrow groovelike or trenchlike depression in any surface: the furrows of a wrinkled face.
verb (used with object)
- to make a furrow or furrows in.
- to make wrinkles in (the face): to furrow one’s brow.
verb (used without object)
- to become furrowed.
noun
- a long narrow trench made in the ground by a plough or a trench resembling this
- any long deep groove, esp a deep wrinkle on the forehead
verb
- to develop or cause to develop furrows or wrinkles
- to make a furrow or furrows in (land)
Old English furh “furrow, trench,” from Proto-Germanic *furkh- (cf. Old Frisian furch “furrow;” Middle Dutch vore, Dutch voor; German Furche “furrow;” Old Norse for “furrow, drainage ditch”), from PIE *perk- (cf. Latin porca “ridge between two furrows,” Old Irish -rech, Welsh rhych “furrow”). “Some scholars connect this word with Latin porcus, Eng. FARROW, assigning to the common root the sense ‘to root like a swine.’ ” [OED]
early 15c., “to plow,” from furrow (n.). Meaning “to make wrinkles in one’s face, brow, etc.” is from 1590s. Related: Furrowed; furrowing.
n.
- A rut, groove, or narrow depression.
- A deep wrinkle in the skin, as on the forehead.