Other forms: stowed, stowing, stows
To stow something is to pack it away where it belongs. Bags in the overhead locker, rope coiled into a locker below deck.
The word is nautical first, and ships gave English most of its vocabulary for putting things away neatly in small spaces. Aircraft kept it, which is why you are asked to stow your baggage and stow your tray table. It carries tidiness and safety rather than mere storage — you stow something so that it will not roll about. The phrasal form stow away means to hide aboard a ship or plane, and the person who does it is a stowaway.
1verbstowTo pack something away tidily and securely.
“He stowed the cases under the bunk.”
To stow is to put in place. Old English stōwian meant to hold back or to restrain, from the root meaning to stand or place, which is the same root that gives us stool.
Proto-Indo-European
*steh₂- — to stand, place, put
Proto-Germanic
*stōō — a place, stowage
Proto-West Germanic
*stōu
Old English
stōw — place, location
Middle English
stowe
English, today
stow
From Middle English stowe, from Old English stōw (“place, location”), from Proto-West Germanic stōu, from Proto-Germanic stōō (“a place, stowage”), from Proto-Indo-European steh₂- (“to stand, place, put”). Cognate with Old Frisian stō (“place”), Icelandic stó (“fireplace”), Dutch stouw (“place”), German Stau (“congestion”). See also -stow.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA