mew

mew

See also: Mew

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /mjuː/

• Audio (RP)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /mju/
• Rhymes: -uː
• Homophone: mu

Etymology 1

From Middle English mewe, mowe, meau, from Old English mǣw, from Proto-West Germanic *maiw, from Proto-Germanic *maihwaz, *maiwaz (“seagull”), from *maiwijaną (“to shout, mew”).

See also West Frisian meau, mieu, Dutch meeuw, German Möwe; also Middle English mawen (“to shout, mew”), Middle Dutch mauwen, Middle High German māwen); akin to Latvian maût (“to roar”), Old Church Slavonic мꙑꙗти (myjati, “to mew”).

Noun

mew (plural mews)

1. (archaic, poetic) A gull, seagull.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938:

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

   • 1954, J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring:

     From helm to sea they saw him leap, / As arrow from the string, / And dive into the water deep, / As mew upon the wing.

Translations

gull or seagull

Bulgarian: чайка буревестница f (čajka burevestnica) Faroese: mási m, mávur m French: mouette (fr) f, goéland (fr) m Georgian: თოლია (tolia) German: Möwe (de) f Japanese: 鴎 (ja) (kamome) Korean: 갈매기 (ko) (galmaegi) Latvian: kaija Old English: mǣw Polish: mewa (pl) Portuguese: gaivota (pt) f Russian: ча́йка (ru) f (čájka) Scottish Gaelic: faoileann f Slovak: čajka (sk) f Swedish: mås (sv) c Volapük: mev (vo)

Etymology 2

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

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, “Book II, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938:

     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. (obsolete) A breeding-cage for birds.
4. (falconry) A cage for hawks, especially while moulting.
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 54573970:

     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.

5. (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. (archaic) To shut away, confine, lock up.
   • c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene i]:

     More pity that the eagle should be mew’d,
     While kites and buzzards prey at liberty.

   • c. 1596, John Donne, “Elegie XX: Loves Warre,” in Charles M. Coffin (ed.), The Complete Poetry and Selected Prose of John Donne, New York: Modern Library, p. 84,

     To mew me in a Ship, is to inthrall

     Mee in a prison, that weare like to fall;

   • 1693, John Dryden (translator), The Satires of Juvenal, London: Jacob Tonson, Satire 1, p. 10,

     […] Nay some have learn’d the trick

     To beg for absent persons; feign them sick,

     Close mew’d in their Sedans, for fear of air:

   • 1748, Tobias Smollett, chapter 50, in The Adventures of Roderick Random.:

     When it came to his turn to mention Sir John Sparkle, he represented him as a man of an immense estate and narrow disposition, who mewed up his only child, a fine young lady, from the conversation of mankind, under the strict watch and inspection of an old governante, who was either so honest, envious, or insatiable, that nobody had been as yet able to make her a friend, or get access to her charge, though numbers attempted it every day […]

   • 1928, Virginia Woolf, chapter 5, in Orlando: A Biography, London: The Hogarth Press, OCLC 154641284; republished as Orlando: A Biography (eBook no. 0200331h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, July 2015:

     […] it was all very well for Orlando to mew herself in her house at Blackfriars and pretend that the climate was the same […]

2. (of a bird) To moult.

   The hawk mewed his feathers.

   • 1620, Fra[ncis] Quarles, “Sect[ion] 10”, in A Feast for Wormes. Set Forth in a Poeme of the History of Ionah, London: […] Felix Kyngston, for Richard Moore, […], OCLC 270804816, signature H3, recto:

     Their nakedneſſe with ſackcloth let them hide, / And mue the veſt'ments of their ſilken pride; […]

   • 1700, [John] Dryden, “Cinyras and Myrrha, Out of the Tenth Book of Ovid’s Metamorphoses”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], OCLC 228732415, page 184:

     Nine times the moon had mewed her horns […]

3. (of a bird, obsolete) To cause to moult.
4. (of a deer, obsolete) To shed antlers.

Alternative forms

• mue

Derived terms

• mew up

Etymology 3

From Middle English mewen; onomatopoeic.

Noun

mew (plural mews)

1. The crying sound of a cat; a meow, especially of a kitten.
2. The crying sound of a gull or buzzard.
3. (obsolete) An exclamation of disapproval; a boo.

Translations

crying sound of a cat — see meow

Verb

mew (third-person singular simple present mews, present participle mewing, simple past and past participle mewed)

1. (of a cat, especially of a kitten) To meow.
2. (of a gull or buzzard) To make its cry.

Translations

meow — see meow

Interjection

mew

1. A cat's (especially a kitten's) cry.
2. A gull's or buzzard's cry.
3. (archaic) An exclamation of disapproval; boo.

Etymology 4

Named after British orthodontists John Mew and his son Michael Mew.[1]

Verb

mew (third-person singular simple present mews, present participle mewing, simple past and past participle mewed)

1. (slang, neologism) To flatten the tongue against the roof of the mouth for supposed health benefits.

References

1. Dream McClinton (2019-03-21), “Mewing: what is the YouTube craze that claims to reshape your face?”, in The Guardian‎

See also

• mews

Anagrams

• MWE, Wem, wem

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Middle English

Noun

mew

1. Alternative form of mewe (“cage”)

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Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɛf/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛf
• Syllabification: mew

Noun

mew f

1. genitive plural of mewa

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Yurok

Noun

mew

1. widower