Mew

English

Noun

Mew (plural Mews)

1. (obsolete) A gull, seagull.
   • , II.xii:

     A daungerous and detestable place, / To which nor fish nor fowle did once approch, / But yelling Meawes, with Seagulles hoarse and bace [...].

Noun

Mew (plural Mews)

1. (obsolete) A prison, or other place of confinement.
2. (obsolete) A hiding-place; a secret store or den.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.vii:

     Ne toung did tell, ne hand these handled not, / But safe I haue them kept in secret mew, / From heauens sight, and powre of all which them pursew.

3. (falconry) A cage for hawks, especially while moulting.
   • 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, vol. I, New York 2001, p. 243:

     A horse in a stable that never travels, a hawk in a mew that seldom flies, are both subject to diseases; which, left unto themselves, are most free from any such encumbrances.

4. (falconry, in the plural) A building or set of buildings where moulting birds are kept.

Verb

Mew (third-person singular simple present Mews, present participle Mewing, simple past and past participle Mewed)

1. (obsolete) To shut away, confine, lock up.
   • c. 1669, John Donne, "Loves Warre":

     To mew me in a Ship, is to inthrall / Mee in a prison, that weare like to fall [...].

Noun

Mew (plural Mews)

1. The crying sound of a cat; a meow.

Verb

Mew (third-person singular simple present Mews, present participle Mewing, simple past and past participle Mewed)

1. (of a cat) To meow.

Interjection

Mew

1. A cat's cry.

Adverbs for Mew

plaintively; sympathetically; maternally; shrilly; vociferously.

Thesaurus

adytum, ashram, bark, bawl, bay, beleaguer, bell, bellow, beset, besiege, blare, blat, blate, bleat, blockade, bottle up, bound, box in, box up, bray, burrow, cage, call, caterwaul, cave, cell, chamber, check, cloister, close in, compass, confine, constrain, contain, coop, coop in, coop up, cordon, cordon off, cork up, corral, couch, covert, crib, cry, den, detain, earth, encage, encircle, enclose, encompass, enshrine, fence in, form, give tongue, give voice, hedge in, hem in, hermitage, hideaway, hideout, hiding place, hold, hold in custody, hold in restraint, hole, holy of holies, house in, howl, immure, impound, imprison, incarcerate, include, inhibit, ivory tower, jail, keep in, keep in custody, keep in detention, kennel, lair, leaguer, lodge, low, meow, mew up, mewl, miaow, moo, neigh, nicker, pen, pen in, pen up, pocket, pound, privacy, pule, quarantine, rail in, recess, restrain, restrict, retreat, roar, run, sanctum, sanctum sanctorum, screak, scream, screech, seal up, secret place, shackle, shrine, shut in, shut up, squall, squeak, squeal, stable, surround, troat, tunnel, ululate, wail, wall in, whicker, whine, whinny, wrap, yap, yard, yard up, yawl, yawp, yelp, yip, yowl

Pronunciation

• IPA: /mjuː/
• Rhymes: -juː

Etymology 1

From Middle English mewe, from Old English mǣw, from Proto-Germanic *maiwaz (compare West Frisian meau, mieu, Dutch meeuw, German Möwe), from *maiwijanan 'to shout, mew' (compare Middle English mawen 'to shout, mew', Middle Dutch mauwen, Middle High German māwen); akin to Latvian maût 'to roar', Old Church Slavonic myjati 'to mew'.

Etymology 2

From Anglo-Norman mue, muwe, and Middle French mue (“shedding feathers; cage for moulting birds; prison”), from muer (“to moult”).

Etymology 3

Onomatopoeic

Translations

Noun

gull or seagull

Japanese: 鴎 (カモメ, kamome) Korean: 갈매기 (galmaegi) Latvian: kaija (lv)

Polish: mewa (pl) Scottish Gaelic: faoileann f.

Noun

crying sound of a cat — see meow

Verb

meow — see meow

Anagrams

• wem

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Yurok

Noun

mew

1. widower