The act of cutting grass or grain with a machine or tool; cutting down vegetation.
From Old English 'mawan,' related to 'mead' (a meadow). The -ing suffix makes it a gerund (noun form of a verb), and the word has been used for grass-cutting since medieval times.
Before power mowers were invented, mowing was brutal seasonal work done by hand—'hay-making season' was a desperate time of intense labor. The invention of the mechanical lawn mower in 1830 literally freed people from hours of backbreaking work!
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