meaw

Verb

meow (third-person singular simple present meows, present participle meowing, simple past and past participle meowed)

1. (intransitive) Of a cat, to make its cry.
   • “The last thing they had seen in 2012 before that break was a short from Simon’s Cat called ‘Cat Man Do,’” said Lamothe. “When you leave 800 people in the dark, they will do something. That’s what Fantasia is. But because they had just seen that cat go meow, they meowed.”2024 January 8, Alison Foreman, “Why Do Audiences at Fantasia Fest … Meow?”, in IndieWire

   Synonyms:

   mew, miaow

See all 6 meanings of meow

Noun (1)

mew (plural mews)

1. (archaic, dialectal, poetic) A gull, seagull.
   • A daungerous and detestable place,
     To which nor fish nor fowle did once approch,
     But yelling Meawes, with Seagulles hoarse and bace […]1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

Noun (2)

mew (plural mews)

1. (obsolete) A prison, or other place of confinement.
2. (obsolete) A hiding place; a secret store or den.
   • 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.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
3. (obsolete) A breeding-cage for birds.
4. A cage for hawks, especially while moulting.
   • 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.1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC
5. (in plural) A building or set of buildings where moulting birds are kept.

See all 20 meanings of mew