Mee-maw
noun, verb, slang ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 Alternative form of meemaw, i.e. mamaw (grandmother). alt-of, alternative, informal
"Well, sometimes mee-maws have things to do, like moms and little girls."
- 2 An exaggerated mouthing of a word.
- 3 The two-tone wailing of a siren.
"As the siren screamed it added to the mee-maws, sirens and cacophony of emergency vehicles rushing to the Hyde Park disaster site."
- 4 A meaningless utterance.
"Oh,” said Archie, “many folk would pay half-a-crown to see their mee-maws;” and this saying was overheard by a Papist standing by, who, in reporting the remark, was pleased to observe that she had always considered Archibald Wilson a Christian, and had respected him as such, until she heard him describe the ceremonies of her church as "mee-maws!""
- 5 A policeman. Scotland, slang
- 1 To silently make exaggerated movements with the mouth so as to be understood in environment with loud noise, such as that of machinery.
"So we walked round and mee-mawed at one another. (Mee-mawing is mouthing words at each other without making a sound using exaggerated lip movements. This is the name the weavers, who use this technique all the time, give to it.)"
- 2 To make the two-syllable wailing noise of a siren.
"It is nasal, screeching, yowling, mee-mawing, wailing—every sound excruciating to ears refined."
Example
More examples"Well, sometimes mee-maws have things to do, like moms and little girls."
Etymology
Variant of meemaw (“grandmother”).
See meemaw (“to mouth”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.