show

name

1. A surname.

noun

Etymology: Variant of shove, itself a variant of shive.

1. Synonym of shive (“wood fragment of the husk of flax or hemp”).

   “When the flax is ſufficiently watered, it feels ſoft to the grip, and the harle parts eaſily with the boon or ſhow, which laſt is then become brittle, and looks whitiſh.”

   “Laſt year (1793) I tranſplanted, from ſeed-beds, into the nurſery, ſeveral fruit-trees; the ground around ſome of which I covered, as above, with flax-ſhows. Notwithſtanding the great heat of the ſummer, none of thoſe trees where the earth was covered with ſhows, died or decayed; becauſe the ſhows prevented the earth under them from being dried by the ſun.”

verb

Etymology: From Middle English schewen, from Old English scēawian (“to look, look at, exhibit, display”), from Proto-West Germanic *skauwōn, from Proto-Germanic *skawwōną (“to look, see”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewh₁- (“to heed, look, feel, take note of”); see haw, gaum, caveat, caution. Cognate with Scots shaw (“to show”), Dutch schouwen (“to inspect, view”), German schauen (“to see, behold”), Danish skue (“to behold”). Related to sheen. Wider cognates include Ancient Greek κῦδος (kûdos), Latin caveō whence English caution and caveat, Sanskrit कवि (kaví, “seer, prophet, bard”), Proto-Slavic *čuti (whence Russian чу́ять (čújatʹ) and many more).

1. To display, to have somebody see (something).

   “The car's dull finish showed years of neglect.”

   “All he had to show for four years of attendance at college was a framed piece of paper.”

2. To bestow; to confer.

   “to show mercy; to show favour”

   “(dialectal) show me the salt please”

3. To indicate (a fact) to be true; to demonstrate.

   “He draws eclectically on studies of baboons, descriptive anthropological accounts of hunter-gatherer societies and, in a few cases, the fossil record. With this biological framework in place, Corning endeavors to show that the capitalist system as currently practiced in the United States and elsewhere is manifestly unfair.”

   “2018, VOA Learning English > China's Melting Glacier Brings Visitors, Adds to Climate Concerns A report this year in the Journal of Geophysical Research showed that the glacier has lost 60 percent of its mass.”

4. To guide or escort.

   “Could you please show him on his way. He has overstayed his welcome.”

   “Who can show me to office? -I'll show in.”

5. To be visible; to be seen; to appear.

   “Your bald patch is starting to show.”

   “At length, his gloom showed.”

6. To appear, look (a certain way)

   “[…] until the grey wintry dawn paled them, and the chill earth showed ghostly and desolate in the cold light.”

   “The exposed dura showed healthy and was left undisturbed.”

7. To put in an appearance; show up.

   “We waited for an hour, but they never showed.”

8. To have an enlarged belly and thus be recognizable as pregnant.

   “Jessica: "So, um, do you think Bella's gonna be showing?" Angela: "Jess, she's not pregnant." Jessica: "Okay. Who else gets married at eighteen?"”

   “"My friend is due 2 weeks after me and she has this cute bump. I’m barely showing! Could something be wrong?”

9. To finish third, especially of horses or dogs.

   “In the third race: Aces Up won, paying eight dollars; Blarney Stone placed, paying three dollars; and Cinnamon showed, paying five dollars.”

10. To reveal one's hand of cards.

    “He called instantly but was too ashamed to show until the river.”

11. To have a certain appearance, such as well or ill, fit or unfit; to become or suit; to appear.

    “My lord of York, it better showed with you.”