mewl

UK/ˈmjuːl/

mewl verb: to cry weakly with a soft, high-pitched sound; to whimper; to whine.

Verb

mewl (third-person singular simple present mewls, present participle mewling, simple past and past participle mewled)

To cry weakly with a soft, high-pitched sound; to whimper; to whine.
- And one man in his time plays many parts, / His acts being seven ages. At first the infant, / Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms; / Then the whining school-boy, […]c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
- You're a pretty clog to be tied to a man for life, you mewling, white-faced cat!1842 December – 1844 July, Charles Dickens, The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1844, →OCLC

Noun

mewl (plural mewls)

A soft cry or whimper; an act of mewling.
- There would have been total silence if it hadn't been for the sea nearby, mewling. Indeed, that same mewl added to the sleepy image that filled the dormant house.1995, Lídia Jorge, Natália Costa, Ronald W. Sousa, transl., The Murmuring Coast, page 89
- I let out another moaning mewl, biting my lip as I awaited whatever he planned.2009, Mickey Erlach, Cruising for Bad Boys, page 61

mewl meaning in Tamil, Urdu and Malayalam

mewl in Tamil

பூனைக்குட்டியின் மியாவ் ஒலி, வலுவற்ற முனகல்

mewl in Urdu

بچے کی طرح بلکنا

mewl in Malayalam

whimper, cry, whine: ചിണുങ്ങിക്കരയുക, നിർത്താതെ കരയുക, ശക്തിയില്ലാതെ കരയുക, താഴ്ന്നസ്വരത്തിൽ കരയുക, തേങ്ങുക, തേങ്ങിക്കരയുക

Examples of mewl in a sentence

My father started rubbing and rubbing on Mittens, scruffying her fur the wrong way, and she mewled her protests.2007, Kiesa Kay, Mimosa May, Tornado Alley, page 11:
The neighbours’ cats stroll into my garden, mewling and hoping for a little bit of in flagrante.2015 April 16, Richard P. Grant, “Sex and the successful fundraiser”, in The Guardian:
The scratching stopped, and there was another piteous mewl from behind the door.2010, Chris Wooding, Malice, page 15:

Forms of mewl

Verb
third-person singular present	mewls
present participle	mewling
past participle	mewled
past	mewled
Noun
plural	mewls

Origin of mewl

From 1599 or earlier (1530 in a Scottish document), apparently from Shakespeare with this spelling. Perhaps from Middle English mewen (“to whimper”) + -le (frequentative suffix).

Words formed from mewl

mewler

Words that rhyme with mewl

42 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about mewl

What does mewl mean?: Mewl means to cry weakly with a soft, high-pitched sound; to whimper; to whine.
What is mewl in Tamil?: Mewl in Tamil is பூனைக்குட்டியின் மியாவ் ஒலி, வலுவற்ற முனகல். See Mewl meaning in Tamil.
How do you use mewl in a sentence?: My father started rubbing and rubbing on Mittens, scruffying her fur the wrong way, and she mewled her protests.
What part of speech is mewl?: Mewl can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce mewl?: Mewl is pronounced /ˈmjuːl/ (UK).
What is the past tense of mewl?: The past tense of mewl is mewled.

Words near mewl in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: mewl (page history and authors); mewl (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); mewl (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); mewl (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “mewl.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mewl. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.