paw

/pɔː(ɹ)//pɔ/

paw noun: the soft foot of a mammal or other animal, generally a quadruped, that has claws or nails; comparable to a human hand or foot. Also the alternative form of pa.

Image: en:Elf, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

paw (plural paws)

The soft foot of a mammal or other animal, generally a quadruped, that has claws or nails; comparable to a human hand or foot.

Synonyms:

hand, foot
(also, humorous, slang) A hand.
- Get your grubby paws off my things!
- Mrs. Hauksbee laid her hand lightly upon the ungloved paw that rested on the turned-backed ’rickshaw hood, and, looking the man full in the face, said tenderly, almost too tenderly, “I believe in you if you mistrust yourself.”1889, Rudyard Kipling, “The Education of Otis Yeere”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 35

Verb

paw (third-person singular simple present paws, present participle pawing, simple past and past participle pawed)

(transitive) Of an animal, to dig through (something, such as a garbage can) with paws.
(transitive) Of an animal, to draw the forefoot along the ground; to beat or scrape with the forefoot.
- He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength: he goeth on to meet the armed men.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 39:21
(broadly, transitive) To touch (someone) in a sexual way.
- IronMan used to be good in this way, back in the '80s. […] They wouldn't subscribe to the old, "Let's put a male bodybuilder with silicone babes pawing him" cover that's mainstay now.1997 August 17, Robert Spector, misc.fitness.weights (Usenet)
- So, Katherine was out with Luke and they were both quite dolled up and swoon-worthy. Katherine fawned all over Luke and pawed him, but to what end? Was Stefan supposed to believe that Luke and Katherine have some sort of a thing going? What was the point of this display from Katherine's perspective?1997 October 26, Amy McWilliams, quoting Verbotene, rec.arts.tv.soaps.abc (Usenet)
Synonyms:

feel up, fiddle, fondle, grope, palpate, touch up
(broadly, transitive) To clumsily dig (through something).

Synonyms:

fumble, go through, rummage
(dated, transitive) To flatter.

Noun (2) capitalized: PAW

PAW (countable and uncountable, plural PAWs)

(abbreviation, uncountable) Abbreviation of plasma arc welding (an arc welding technology).

Synonyms:

PAW welding
(abbreviation, countable) Abbreviation of plasma arc weld (a weld created with the PAW process).

Synonyms:

PAW weld
(abbreviation, initialism) initialism of physics analysis workstation.
- PAW is a program package to assist physicists in the analysis and presentation of their data.1988, R. Brun, O. Couet, N. Cremel, A. Nathaniel, A. Rademakers, Q121: PAW - Physics Analysis Workstation Package
- The graphical functions in PAW are based on a high-level interface to underlying basic graphic systems.1989, H. Johnstad, “Physics Analysis Workstation”, in IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, volume 36, number 5, pages 1568-1571

Also used as

paw is also the alternative form of pa.

paw meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali

paw in Hindi

soft foot of an animal: पंजा pañjā

paw in Marathi

soft foot of an animal: पंजा pañjā

paw in Urdu

soft foot of an animal: پنجا panjā

paw in Bengali

soft foot of an animal: থাবা thaba

More languagesFewer languages

paw in Telugu: పంజా pañjā
paw in Arabic: قَدَم qadam
paw in Malay: kaki, cakar
paw in Indonesian: cakar
paw in Persian: پنجه panje, پنجول panjul
paw in Thai: ตีน dtiin
paw in Vietnamese: chân, cẳng

Examples of paw in a sentence

Abel smiled broadly and proffered his hamlike paw to the chief […]1935, The American Magazine:
Also, what was the item she nicked from his shirt while she pawed him?2002 July 18, Lurker Dave, rec.arts.comics.marvel.universe (Usenet):
He’s flirting with women but he’s not pawing them.2023 October 6, Ryan Gilbey, quoting Illeana Douglas, “The double life of Rock Hudson: ‘Let’s be frank, he was a horndog!’”, in The...

All 40 example sentences with paw

Synonyms of paw

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of paw

Forms of paw

Noun
plural	paws
plural	PAWs
Verb
third-person singular present	paws
present participle	pawing
past participle	pawed
past	pawed

Plural of paw: paws

Origin of paw

From Middle English pawe, from Old French poue, poe, from Vulgar Latin *pauta. Further origin unknown, perhaps from Frankish *pōta, from Frankish *pōtōn (“to put, stick, plant”), from Proto-Germanic *putōną, whence also Old English potian (“to push”), pȳtan (“to put out, poke out”). See more at put. Doublet of pote, put, and putt. Cognate with Dutch poot, poten (“to plant”), Low German Pote, German Pfote, Icelandic pota (“to stick”).

The word probably has an origin in baby talk. See pa.

Words formed from paw

Phrases with paw

Words that rhyme with paw

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about paw

What does paw mean?: Paw means the soft foot of a mammal or other animal, generally a quadruped, that has claws or nails; comparable to a human hand or foot.
What is paw in Hindi?: Paw in Hindi is पंजा (pañjā). See Paw meaning in Hindi.
How do you use paw in a sentence?: Abel smiled broadly and proffered his hamlike paw to the chief […]
What part of speech is paw?: Paw can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce paw?: Paw is pronounced /pɔː(ɹ)/ (UK).
What is the plural of paw?: The plural of paw is paws.

Words near paw in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: paw (page history and authors); PAW (page history and authors). 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

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-uk-paw.ogg, en-us-paw.ogg.

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