mew

Etymology 1

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

noun

1. (archaic, poetic, dialectal) A gull, seagull.
   From helm to sea they saw him leap, / As arrow from the string, / And dive into the water deep, / As mew upon the wing. 1954, J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Etymology 2

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

1. (obsolete) A prison, or other place of confinement.
2. (obsolete) A hiding place; a secret store or den.
3. (obsolete) A breeding-cage for birds.
4. (falconry) A cage for hawks, especially while moulting.
5. (falconry, in the plural) A building or set of buildings where moulting birds are kept.

verb

1. (archaic) To shut away, confine, lock up.
   To mew me in a Ship, is to inthrall Mee in a prison, that weare like to fall; c. 1596, John Donne, “Elegie XX: Loves Warre”, in Charles M. Coffin, editor, The Complete Poetry and Selected Prose of John Donne, New York: Modern Library, page 84
   1693, John Dryden (translator), The Satires of Juvenal, London: Jacob Tonson, Satire 1, p. 10, […] Nay some have learn’d the trick To beg for absent persons; feign them sick, Close mew’d in their Sedans, for fear of air:
   When it came to his turn to mention Sir John Sparkle, he represented him as a man of an immense estate and narrow disposition, who mewed up his only child, a fine young lady, from the conversation of mankind, under the strict watch and inspection of an old governante, who was either so honest, envious, or insatiable, that nobody had been as yet able to make her a friend, or get access to her charge, though numbers attempted it every day […] 1748, Tobias Smollett, chapter 50, in The Adventures of Roderick Random.
2. (of a bird) To moult.
   The hawk mewed his feathers.
3. (of a bird, obsolete) To cause to moult.
4. (of a deer, obsolete) To shed antlers.

Etymology 3

From Middle English mewen; onomatopoeic.

noun

1. The crying sound of a cat; a meow, especially of a kitten.
2. The crying sound of a gull or buzzard.
3. (obsolete) An exclamation of disapproval; a boo.

verb

1. (of a cat, especially of a kitten) To meow.
2. (of a gull or buzzard) To make its cry.

intj

1. A cat's (especially a kitten's) cry.
2. A gull's or buzzard's cry.
3. (archaic) An exclamation of disapproval; boo.

Etymology 4

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

verb

1. (slang, neologism) To flatten the tongue against the roof of the mouth for supposed health benefits.