MEW • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Mew

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verb

Mew v. t. (past & past part. mewed; pres. part. mewing) To shed or cast; to change; to molt; as, the hawk mewed his feathers. "Nine times the moon had mewed her horns."

Mew v. t. To shut up; to inclose; to confine, as in a cage or other inclosure. "More pity that the eagle should be mewed." "Close mewed in their sedans, for fear of air."

Mew v. i. To cast the feathers; to molt; hence, to change; to put on a new appearance. "Now everything doth mew, And shifts his rustic winter robe."

Mew v. i. (Written also meaw, meow) To cry as a cat.

noun

Mew n. (Zool.) A gull, esp. the common British species (Larus canus); called also sea mew, maa, mar, mow, and cobb.

Mew n.

A cage for hawks while mewing; a coop for fattening fowls; hence, any inclosure; a place of confinement or shelter; in the latter sense usually in the plural. "Full many a fat partrich had he in mewe." "Forthcoming from her darksome mew." "Violets in their secret mews."

A stable or range of stables for horses; compound used in the plural, and so called from the royal stables in London, built on the site of the king's mews for hawks.

Mew n. The common cry of a cat.

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Etymology of 'Mew'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Mew" Quotes from Famous Books

... last syllable being pronounced or prolonged like a mew of a cat. 'BARTHOLO-me-e-w!' repeated he, not getting an answer to ...

— Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour • R. S. Surtees

... stood at my spot of thought In the white-stoned Garth, brooding thus her wrong, Her husband neared; and to shun his view By her hallowed mew I went from the ...

— Wessex Poems and Other Verses • Thomas Hardy

... night-air sing, But there no more shall withered hags Refresh at ease their broomstick nags, Or taste those hazel-shadowed waters As beverage meet for Satan's daughters; No more their mimic tones be heard, The mew of cat, the chirp of bird, Shrill blending with the hoarser laughter Of the fell demon following after! The cautious goodman nails no more A horseshoe on his outer door, Lest some unseemly hag should fit To his own mouth her bridle-bit; The goodwife's churn no more refuses ...

— The Complete Works of Whittier - The Standard Library Edition with a linked Index • John Greenleaf Whittier

... evening, when she was standing at the window of the corridor, refreshing her eye with gazing at the glorious sunset in the midst of a pile of crimson and purple clouds, reflected in the ocean—'Mary, Ward is going to Mew ...

— Dynevor Terrace (Vol. II) • Charlotte M. Yonge

... in sand and sea-water, reducing the frocks to a condition that would have been Sarah's daily distraction, if she had not reconciled herself to it by observing, 'it did her heart good to see the Colonel take to the children, though he was no more to be trusted with them than a sea-mew; and if it was not for Master John, she believed they would all ...

— Heartsease - or Brother's Wife • Charlotte M. Yonge

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