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Mow vs Mew - What's the difference?

mow | mew |

As verbs the difference between mow and mew

is that mow is while mew is (obsolete) to shut away, confine, lock up or mew can be (of a cat) to meow.

As a noun mew is

(obsolete) a gull, seagull or mew can be (obsolete) a prison, or other place of confinement or mew can be the crying sound of a cat; a meow.

As an interjection mew is

a cat's cry.

mow

English

Etymology 1

(etyl) mowen (participle mowen), from (etyl) )

Verb

  • To cut something (especially grass or crops) down or knock down.
    • He mowed the lawn .
    Derived terms
    * mow down

    Etymology 2

    (etyl) (m), from (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • *, Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, p.212:
  • *:Those that paint them dyingdelineate the prisoners spitting in their executioners faces, and making mowes at them.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Make mows at him.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To make grimaces, mock.
  • * 1610 , , act 2 scene 2
    • For every trifle are they set upon me: / Sometime like apes that mow and chatter at me, / And after bite me;
  • * Tyndale
    • Nodding, becking, and mowing .

    Etymology 3

    (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A stack of hay, corn, beans or a barn for the storage of hay, corn, beans.
  • The place in a barn where hay or grain in the sheaf is stowed.

    • Verb

    (en verb)
  • (agriculture) To put into mows.

    • Etymology 4

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (a seagull)
    • (Webster 1913)

    See also

    *

    Anagrams

    * English terms with multiple etymologies

    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

    * ----