Mews
noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 An alley where there are stables; a narrow passage; a confined place. British
"What penned them there, with all the plain to choose? No foot-print leading to that horrid mews, None out of it."
- 2 plural of mew form-of, plural
- 3 street lined with buildings that were originally private stables but have been remodeled as dwellings wordnet
- 4 A place where birds of prey are housed.
- 1 third-person singular simple present indicative of mew form-of, indicative, present, singular, third-person
Example
More examples"A milk boy, passing on his way to the dairy, happened to walk down the lane which leads from the mews at the back of the hotel. He noticed that a ladder, which usually lay there, was raised against one of the windows of the second floor, which was wide open. After passing, he looked back and saw a man descend the ladder. He came down so quietly and openly that the boy imagined him to be some carpenter or joiner at work in the hotel."
Etymology
From Mewes, the name of the royal stables at Charing Cross, which is the plural of mew (“falcon cage”).
See mew.
Related phrases
More for "mews"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.