Meow
intj, noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 The cry of a cat. countable
"A cat’s meow and a cow’s moo, I can recite them all / Just tell me where it hurts you, honey"
- 2 the sound made by a cat (or any sound resembling this) wordnet
- 3 The drug mephedrone. UK, slang, uncountable
- 1 Of a cat, to make its cry. intransitive
"“The last thing they had seen in 2012 before that break was a short from Simon’s Cat called ‘Cat Man Do,’” said Lamothe. “When you leave 800 people in the dark, they will do something. That’s what Fantasia is. But because they had just seen that cat go meow, they meowed.”"
- 2 cry like a cat wordnet
- 1 Used to indicate the cry of a cat.
"“The last thing they had seen in 2012 before that break was a short from Simon’s Cat called ‘Cat Man Do,’” said Lamothe. “When you leave 800 people in the dark, they will do something. That’s what Fantasia is. But because they had just seen that cat go meow, they meowed.”"
- 2 Used in reply to a spiteful or catty comment. colloquial
- 3 Used to express seductiveness, mimicking a growl. colloquial
Example
More examples"Does a Roman cat have a Roman meow?"
Etymology
Alteration of earlier mew, from Middle English mewen, mouwen (“to mew, meow”), of onomatopoeic origin. Compare Saterland Frisian mauje, miauje (“to meow”), West Frisian miaukje (“to meow”), Dutch miauwen (“to meow”), Middle Low German mauwen, mawen, mouwen (“to meow”) (whence modern German Low German mauen, miauen (“to meow”)), Middle High German mouen, modern German miauen (“to meow”). Some spellings were modelled on French miaou. Meow and its spelling variants entered widespread currency in the 19th century, mostly replacing mew, possibly because phonetic change meant that word had ceased to approximate a cat's cry (contrast the pronunciation of Middle English mewen /ˈmɛu̯ən/ compared to modern /ˈmjuː/).
Related phrases
More for "meow"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.