Sow n.
 1. Zool. The female of swine, or of the hog kind.
 2. Zool. A sow bug.
 3. Metal. (a) A channel or runner which receives the rows of molds in the pig bed. (b) The bar of metal which remains in such a runner. (c) A mass of solidified metal in a furnace hearth; a salamander.
 4. 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.
 Sow bread. Bot. See Cyclamen.
 Sow bug, or Sowbug Zool., any one of numerous species of terrestrial Isopoda belonging to Oniscus, Porcellio, and allied genera of the family Oniscidae.  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.


 Cyc·la·men n.  Bot. A genus of plants of the Primrose family, having depressed rounded corms, and pretty nodding flowers with the petals so reflexed as to point upwards, whence it is called rabbits' ears. It is also called sow bread, because hogs are said to eat the corms.

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