Mew

//mjuː// intj, name, noun, verb, slang

intj, name, noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A gull, seagull. archaic, dialectal, poetic

    "A daungerous and detestable place, To which nor fish nor fowle did once approch, But yelling Meawes, with Seagulles hoarse and bace […]"

  2. 2
    A prison, or other place of confinement. obsolete
  3. 3
    The crying sound of a cat; a meow, especially of a kitten.
  4. 4
    the common gull of Eurasia and northeastern North America wordnet
  5. 5
    A hiding place; a secret store or den. obsolete

    "Ne toung did tell, ne hand these handled not, / But safe I haue them kept in secret mew, / From heauens sight, and powre of all which them pursew."

Show 6 more definitions
  1. 6
    The crying sound of a gull or buzzard.
  2. 7
    the sound made by a cat (or any sound resembling this) wordnet
  3. 8
    A breeding-cage for birds. obsolete
  4. 9
    An exclamation of disapproval; a boo. obsolete
  5. 10
    A cage for hawks, especially while moulting.

    "A horse in a stable that never travels, a hawk in a mew that seldom flies, are both subject to diseases; which, left unto themselves, are most free from any such encumbrances."

  6. 11
    A building or set of buildings where moulting birds are kept. in-plural
Verb
  1. 1
    To shut away, confine, lock up. archaic

    "More pity that the eagle should be mew’d, While kites and buzzards prey at liberty."

  2. 2
    To meow. especially
  3. 3
    To flatten one's tongue against the roof of the mouth, with the aim of improving jaw and facial structure. intransitive, slang
  4. 4
    cry like a cat wordnet
  5. 5
    To moult.

    "The hawk mewed his feathers."

Show 4 more definitions
  1. 6
    To make its cry.
  2. 7
    utter a high-pitched cry, as of seagulls wordnet
  3. 8
    To cause to moult. obsolete
  4. 9
    To shed antlers. obsolete
Intj
  1. 1
    A cat's (especially a kitten's) cry.
  2. 2
    A gull's or buzzard's cry.
  3. 3
    An exclamation of disapproval; boo. archaic
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname.

    "Darren James Mew"

Synonyms

All synonyms
meowadytumashrambarkbawlbay

Example

More examples

"The osprey and the sea mew, fly down to catch fish, but the Heron catches them while standing on the banks. The bittern puts its bill into the water and bellows like an ox. The water wagtail wags its tail."

Etymology

Etymology 1

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

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”).

Etymology 3

From Middle English mewen; onomatopoeic.

Etymology 4

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

Related phrases

mew gullmew upsnow mewhiding placelock upshut away

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.