paw.
The soft foot of a mammal or other animal, generally a quadruped, that has claws or nails; comparable to a human hand or foot.
Meaning & usage
The soft foot of a mammal or other animal, generally a quadruped, that has claws or nails; comparable to a human hand or foot.
A hand.
Get your grubby paws off my things!
Where this word comes from
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”).
Of an animal, to touch (something) with a paw. Of an animal, to dig through (something, such as a garbage can) with paws.
Of an animal, to touch (something) with a paw. Of an animal, to draw the forefoot along the ground; to beat or scrape with the forefoot.
To touch (someone) in a sexual way.
To clumsily dig (through something).
To flatter.
Where this word comes from
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”).
Alternative form of pa (“father”).
Where this word comes from
The word probably has an origin in baby talk. See pa.
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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.