Library / English Dictionary

VOW

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A solemn pledge (to oneself or to another or to a deity) to do something or to behave in a certain manner

Example:

they took vows of poverty

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("vow" is a kind of...):

assurance; pledge (a binding commitment to do or give or refrain from something)

Derivation:

vow (make a vow; promise)

vow (dedicate to a deity by a vow)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make a vow; promise

Example:

He vowed never to drink alcohol again

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "vow" is one way to...):

pledge; plight (promise solemnly and formally)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "vow"):

affiance; betroth; engage; plight (give to in marriage)

profess (take vows, as in religious order)

swear (promise solemnly; take an oath)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s that CLAUSE
Somebody ----s to INFINITIVE

Sentence example:

They vow to move

Derivation:

vow (a solemn pledge (to oneself or to another or to a deity) to do something or to behave in a certain manner)

vower (someone who makes a solemn promise to do something or behave in a certain way)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Dedicate to a deity by a vow

Synonyms:

consecrate; vow

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "vow" is one way to...):

commit; consecrate; dedicate; devote; give (give entirely to a specific person, activity, or cause)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s something to somebody

Derivation:

vow (a solemn pledge (to oneself or to another or to a deity) to do something or to behave in a certain manner)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Madam, replied Mr. Micawber, it is my intention to register such a vow on the virgin page of the future.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Now Mr. Davis had declared limes a contraband article, and solemnly vowed to publicly ferrule the first person who was found breaking the law.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

She vowed at first she would never trim me up a new bonnet, nor do any thing else for me again, so long as she lived; but now she is quite come to, and we are as good friends as ever.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

I can tell you, gentlemen, that the gulf which can be bridged by unlawful love can be spanned also by an unlawful hatred, and that upon the day when this young man stole from me all that made my life worth living, I vowed to Heaven that I should take from him that foul life of his, though the deed would cover but the tiniest fraction of the debt which he owed me.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A day, and a very early day, was actually fixed for the Crawfords' departure; and Sir Thomas thought it might be as well to make one more effort for the young man before he left Mansfield, that all his professions and vows of unshaken attachment might have as much hope to sustain them as possible.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

But I was a little comforted by a message from his majesty, that he would give orders to the grand justiciary for passing my pardon in form: which, however, I could not obtain; and I was privately assured, that the empress, conceiving the greatest abhorrence of what I had done, removed to the most distant side of the court, firmly resolved that those buildings should never be repaired for her use: and, in the presence of her chief confidents could not forbear vowing revenge.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

You are like to bring a judgment upon us with these vows, which no living man could accomplish.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

In his last illness, he had it brought continually to his bedside; and but an hour before he died, he bound me by vow to keep the creature.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Mr. Darcy!—and so it does, I vow.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Inflamed by pain, I vowed eternal hatred and vengeance to all mankind.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)