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Mew vs Maw - What's the difference?

mew | maw |

As nouns the difference between mew and maw

is that mew is a gull, seagull while maw is the stomach, especially of an animal.

As a verb mew

is to shut away, confine, lock up.

As an interjection mew

is a cat's cry.

mew

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) mewe, from (etyl) 'to roar', Old Church Slavonic (myjati) 'to mew'.

Noun

(en noun)
  • (obsolete) A gull, seagull.
  • * , II.xii:
    • A daungerous and detestable place, / To which nor fish nor fowle did once approch, / But yelling Meawes , with Seagulles hoarse and bace [...].

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) mue, (muwe), and (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) A prison, or other place of confinement.
  • (obsolete) A hiding place; a secret store or den.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , II.vii:
    • 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.
  • (falconry) A cage for hawks, especially while moulting.
  • *, vol.I, New York, 2001, p.243:
    • 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.
  • (falconry, in the plural) A building or set of buildings where moulting birds are kept.

    • Verb

    (en verb)
  • (obsolete) To shut away, confine, lock up.
  • * c. 1669 , John Donne, "Loves Warre":
    • To mew me in a Ship, is to inthrall / Mee in a prison, that weare like to fall [...].
  • * Shakespeare
    • More pity that the eagle should be mewed .
  • * Dryden
    • Close mewed in their sedans, for fear of air.
  • (of a bird) To moult.
    • The hawk mewed his feathers.
  • * Dryden
    • Nine times the moon had mewed her horns.

    Etymology 3

    Onomatopoeic

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The crying sound of a cat; a meow.

    • Verb

    (en verb)
  • (of a cat) To meow.

    • Interjection

    (en interjection)
  • A cat's cry.

    • Anagrams

    * ----

    maw

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) mawe, from (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (archaic) the stomach, especially of an animal
  • * 1667 , , Paradise Lost, Book X
    • So Death shall be deceav'd his glut, and with us two / Be forc'd to satisfie his Rav'nous Maw .
  • the upper digestive tract (where food enters the body), especially the mouth and jaws of a ravenous creature.
  • * 1818 , , Endymion
    • To save poor lambkins from the eagle's maw
  • any great, insatiable or perilous opening.
  • Appetite; inclination.
  • * Beaumont and Fletcher
    • Unless you had more maw to do me good.

    Etymology 2

    By shortening of mother

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (dialect, colloquial) Mother.

    • Etymology 3

    See .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A gull.

    • Anagrams

    * ----