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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

mew.

A gull, seagull.

3 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈmjuː/[ˈmjʊu̯]
  1. A gull, seagull.

    archaic · dialectal · poetic
Where this word comes from

From Middle English mewe, mowe, meau, from Old English mǣw (“seagull”), from Proto-West Germanic *maiwī, from Proto-Germanic *mai(h)waz (“seagull”). See also West Frisian meau, miuw, Dutch meeuw, German Möwe (whence Polish mewa); akin to Latvian maût (“to roar”), Old Church Slavonic мꙑꙗти (myjati, “to mew”).

noun/ˈmjuː/[ˈmjʊu̯]
  1. A prison, or other place of confinement.

    obsolete
  2. A hiding place; a secret store or den.

    obsolete
  3. A breeding-cage for birds.

    obsolete
  4. A cage for hawks, especially while moulting.

  5. A building or set of buildings where moulting birds are kept.

    in-plural
Where this word comes from

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”).

verb/ˈmjuː/[ˈmjʊu̯]
  1. To shut away, confine, lock up.

    archaic
  2. To moult.

    The hawk mewed his feathers.
  3. To cause to moult.

    obsolete
  4. To shed antlers.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

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/ˈmjuː/[ˈmjʊu̯]
  1. The crying sound of a cat; a meow, especially of a kitten.

  2. The crying sound of a gull or buzzard.

  3. An exclamation of disapproval; a boo.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English mewen; onomatopoeic.

verb/ˈmjuː/[ˈmjʊu̯]
  1. To meow.

    especially
  2. To make its cry.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English mewen; onomatopoeic.

intj/ˈmjuː/[ˈmjʊu̯]
  1. A cat's (especially a kitten's) cry.

  2. A gull's or buzzard's cry.

  3. An exclamation of disapproval; boo.

    archaic
Where this word comes from

From Middle English mewen; onomatopoeic.

verb/ˈmjuː/[ˈmjʊu̯]
  1. To flatten one's tongue against the roof of the mouth, with the aim of improving jaw and facial structure.

    intransitive · slang
Where this word comes from

Named after British orthodontists John Mew and his son Michael Mew.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.