Mew

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /mjuː/
• US IPA: /mju/
• Rhymes: -juː

From Middle English mewe, from Old English mǣw, from Proto-Germanic *maihwaz, *maiwaz ("seagull") (compare West Frisian meau, mieu, Dutch meeuw, German Möwe), from *maiwijaną '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'.

Full definition of mew

Noun

1. (obsolete) A gull, seagull.
• Spenser Faerie Queene, II.xii:A daungerous and detestable place,
  To which nor fish nor fowle did once approch,
  But yelling Meawes, with Seagulles hoarse and bace ....

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

Noun

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

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 ....
• ShakespeareMore pity that the eagle should be mewed.
• DrydenClose mewed in their sedans, for fear of air.
2. (of a bird) To moult.The hawk mewed his feathers.
• DrydenNine times the moon had mewed her horns.

Onomatopoeic

Noun

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

Verb

1. (of a cat) To meow.

Interjection

1. A cat's cry.

Anagrams

• wem