Meaning & use
grow
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Meanings
verbintransitive
To increase in size, number, strength, or importance over time.
Grammar: No object; often followed by bigger, from, into, or out of: grow into an adult.
Patterns
- grow bigger
- grow from something into something
- grow out of something
Children grow quickly during the summer.
The quiet protest grew into a national movement.
verbtransitive
To cause plants or crops to develop by planting and caring for them.
Grammar: Takes an object: grow tomatoes. Do not use an object for natural increase: the plant grows.
Patterns
- grow vegetables
- grow flowers
- grow a garden
We grow basil on the kitchen windowsill.
The farm grows organic barley for local bakeries.
verbtransitivebusiness
To make a business, audience, savings, or activity larger or stronger.
Grammar: Takes an object and often an adverb such as rapidly or carefully: grow the customer base.
Patterns
- grow a business
- grow an audience
- grow savings
The bakery used social media to grow its weekend orders.
She invested steadily to grow her savings.
verblinking
To become gradually, especially a state or feeling.
Grammar: Links subject to adjective: grow tired, grow dark; not followed by a noun object.
Patterns
- grow tired of something
- grow angry
- grow dark
After hours of traffic, everyone grew restless.
The sky grew dark before the storm arrived.
Word forms
| third-person singular | grows |
|---|---|
| past tense | grew |
| past participle | grown |
| -ing form | growing |
Common combinations
- grow up
- She wants to be a pilot when she grows up.
- grow tired of
- I grew tired of waiting for an apology.
- grow roses
- He grows roses along the sunny fence.
- grow a business
- They hired two people to grow the business carefully.
- grow out of
- The jacket was cheap because he had grown out of it.
Synonyms and how they differ
- increase
- Increase focuses on becoming larger in amount; grow can also mean become, develop, or cultivate.
- expand
- Expand often suggests spreading outward or adding scope, while grow is broader and more gradual.
- develop
- Develop means gradually form or improve; grow is stronger about size or cultivation.
- raise
- Raise is transitive for children, animals, or crops and stresses active care; grow often stresses cultivation or natural increase.
Opposites
Word family
- growth noun
- An increase in size, amount, or development; also a lump in medical use.
- growing adjective
- Increasing or developing: a growing problem.
- grown adjective
- Fully developed; also used in grown-up for adult.
- grower noun
- A person or company that produces plants or crops.
- overgrown adjective
- Covered with plants that have grown too much.
Commonly confused: grow or raise?
grow vs raise
Use grow for plants increasing or being cultivated; use raise when a person actively lifts, funds, children, animals, or sometimes crops in American farm English.
Practice
Every spring we ___ basil on the windowsill and pinch the leaves for pasta.
Choose one answer.
Grow is the natural verb for cultivating a plant over time. Water is only one care task, harvest happens later, and raise sounds less natural than grow for basil on a windowsill.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “grow”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.