Other forms: towed, towing, tows
To tow is to pull a vehicle behind another. Tow the car, towed away, a tow rope.
The towing vehicle must be heavy enough or the trailer pushes it around, which is why towing limits exist and why a snaking caravan is so dangerous. Towed away is what happens to a car parked illegally. In tow means following along behind. Note that the word is Old English and means to pull.
1verbtowTo pull a vehicle behind another.
“The police towed away my car because I'd parked in the wrong place.”
tow is a pulling.
Old English togian means to pull or drag, from a Germanic root. Tug and tie come from related pulling.
Proto-Indo-European
*dewk- — to draw, pull; to lead
Proto-Germanic
*tugōną — to draw, pull
Proto-West Germanic
*togōn
Old English
togian — to tow
Middle English
towen
English, today
tow
From Middle English towen, from Old English togian (“to tow”), from Proto-West Germanic togōn, from Proto-Germanic tugōną (“to draw, pull”), from Proto-Indo-European dewk- (“to draw, pull; to lead”). 2 Cognate with German zögern (“to hesitate, pause”), Faroese and Icelandic toga (“to pull”), French touer (“to tow, tug a ship”); also Welsh dwyn (“to steal; to take; to bring to”), Latin dūcō (“to conduct, guide, lead; to take; to draw, pull; to consider, think; to prolong; to march; to forge”), Ancient Greek δαδύσσομαι (“to be distracted”), Albanian nduk (“to pluck out, pull out, tear”), ckb دۆشین (“to milk”), kmr dotin, doşîn, دۆشین (“to milk”), os ду́цын (“to milk”), ps لوشل (“to milk; to extort”), Persian دوشیدن, دوشتن, دوختن (“to milk”). Related to tug.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA