Quote:
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Originally Posted by Anonymous (from Cambridge Dictionary of American English)
definition:
If someone is in tow, they are with someone else:
She arrived with her three children in tow.
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my questions:
1. someone = they?
2. the three children's mother is someone else?
3. what's the diffenence if we say "She arrived with her three children" ,
without adding "in tow"?
thanks! |
When a woman (or anybody for that matter) arrives with her children in tow, it's meant to emphasize that the children are a bit of a burden. If you simply say she "arrived with her three children," it's just a statement of fact, but saying they're "in tow" adds an extra sense of its being a burden, as the mental image is one of tow lines between the woman and her children (ie. she has to pull them everywhere she goes).
It doesn't only apply to children, however. A man could arrive at a party with his wife (or vice versa) in tow, and that would have the same "burdensome" overtones that it has with children.