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Haw
Definitions
- 1 An imitation of laughter, often used to express scorn or disbelief. Often doubled or tripled (haw haw or haw haw haw).
"You think that song was good? Haw!"
- 2 An instruction for a horse or other animal to turn towards the driver, typically left.
- 3 An intermission or hesitation of speech, with a sound somewhat like "haw"; the sound so made.
"Hums or haws."
- 1 A topographic and patronymic surname transferred from the given name.
- 2 A river in the US state of North Carolina.
- 1 Fruit of the hawthorn.
- 2 The third eyelid, or nictitating membrane. countable
- 3 the nictitating membrane of a horse wordnet
- 4 A hedge. historical
- 5 A disease of the nictitating membrane. uncountable
Show 2 more definitions
- 6 a spring-flowering shrub or small tree of the genus Crataegus wordnet
- 7 Something that has little value or importance; a whit or jot. obsolete
"wele not leaue a man of lawe, Nor a paper worth a hawe, And make him worſe than a dawe, That ſhall ſtand againſt Iacke Strawe."
- 1 To stop, in speaking, with a sound like haw; to speak with interruption and hesitation.
- 2 To turn towards the driver, typically to the left.
"This horse won't haw when I tell him to."
- 3 utter ‘haw’ wordnet
- 4 To cause (an animal) to turn left.
"You may have to go to the front of the pack and physically haw the lead dog."
Etymology
From Middle English ha (interjection). Compare Old Norse há (interjection), Middle Low German ha, hā (interjection), Old High German aha, hei (interjection).
From Middle English ha (interjection). Compare Old Norse há (interjection), Middle Low German ha, hā (interjection), Old High German aha, hei (interjection).
From Middle English hawe, from Old English haga (“enclosure, hedge”), from Proto-Germanic *hagô (compare West Frisian haach, Dutch haag, German Hag (“hedged farmland”), Norwegian Bokmål hage (“garden”)), from Proto-Indo-European *kagʰom (compare Welsh cae (“field”), Latin caulae (“sheepfold, enclosure”), cohum (“strap between plowbeam and yoke”), Russian кош (koš, “tent”), коша́ра (košára, “sheepfold”), Sanskrit कक्ष (kakṣa, “curtain wall”)), from *kagʰ- 'to catch, grasp' (compare Welsh cau (“to clasp”), Oscan kahad (“may he seize”).
Assumed to be interjectory, but compare Old English hawian (“to observe, look”)
Assumed to be interjectory, but compare Old English hawian (“to observe, look”)
Late Middle English (denoting a discharge from the eye), of uncertain origin. Perhaps related to Etymology 2 above, describing a berry.
From Old English haga (“enclosure”). Also a back-formation from Middle English Hawkin, a diminutive of Harry or of a given name meaning "a hawk". Doublet of Haig.
See also for "haw"
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