The Collaborative International Dictionary
Sow \Sow\, n. [OE. sowe, suwe, AS. sugu, akin to s[=u], D. zog, zeug, OHG. s[=u], G. sau, Icel. s[=y]r, Dan. so, Sw. sugga, so, L. sus. Gr. "y^s, sy^s, Zend. hu boar; probably from the root seen in Skr. s[=u] to beget, to bear; the animal being named in allusion to its fecundity. [root]294. Cf. Hyena, Soil to stain, Son, Swine.]
(Zo["o]l.) The female of swine, or of the hog kind.
(Zo["o]l.) A sow bug.
-
(Metal.)
A channel or runner which receives the rows of molds in the pig bed.
The bar of metal which remains in such a runner.
A mass of solidified metal in a furnace hearth; a salamander.
-
(Mil.) A kind of covered shed, formerly used by besiegers in filling up and passing the ditch of a besieged place, sapping and mining the wall, or the like.
--Craig.Sow bread. (Bot.) See Cyclamen.
Sow bug, or Sowbug (Zo["o]l.), any one of numerous species of terrestrial Isopoda belonging to Oniscus, Porcellio, and allied genera of the family Oniscid[ae]. They feed chiefly on decaying vegetable substances.
Sow thistle [AS. sugepistel] (Bot.), a composite plant ( Sonchus oleraceus) said to be eaten by swine and some other animals.
WordNet
n. terrestrial isopod having an oval segmented body (a shape like a sow)
Usage examples of "sow bug".
The leprosy dissolved into a misshapen worm, a vulture, a poisonous toad, a sow bug, a patch of spleenwort, and then a happy laughing little boy who was torturing a gecko.
She got as far as filling three black trash bags with junk food jetsam and was getting ready to vacuum up the collection of sow bug corpses that dotted her carpet when she made the mistake of Windexing the television.
She balled herself up like a sow bug and fell to the rug below with terrible gasping giggles.