MEW

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does mew mean? 

• MEW (noun)
  The noun MEW has 2 senses:

1. the sound made by a cat (or any sound resembling this)

2. the common gull of Eurasia and northeastern North America

  Familiarity information: MEW used as a noun is rare.

• MEW (verb)
  The verb MEW has 2 senses:

1. cry like a cat

2. utter a high-pitched cry, as of seagulls

  Familiarity information: MEW used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MEW (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The sound made by a cat (or any sound resembling this)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

meow; mew; miaou; miaow; miaul

Hypernyms ("mew" is a kind of...):

cry (the characteristic utterance of an animal)

Derivation:

mew (cry like a cat)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The common gull of Eurasia and northeastern North America

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

Larus canus; mew; mew gull; sea mew

Hypernyms ("mew" is a kind of...):

gull; sea gull; seagull (mostly white aquatic bird having long pointed wings and short legs)

Holonyms ("mew" is a member of...):

genus Larus; Larus (type genus of the Laridae)

Derivation:

mew (cry like a cat)

mew (utter a high-pitched cry, as of seagulls)

• MEW (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they mew    ... he / she / it mews   
Past simple: mewed   
Past participle: mewed   
-ing form: mewing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cry like a cat

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

meow; mew

Context example:

the cat meowed

Hypernyms (to "mew" is one way to...):

emit; let loose; let out; utter (express audibly; utter sounds (not necessarily words))

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

mew (the common gull of Eurasia and northeastern North America)

mew (the sound made by a cat (or any sound resembling this))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Utter a high-pitched cry, as of seagulls

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "mew" is one way to...):

emit; let loose; let out; utter (express audibly; utter sounds (not necessarily words))

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

mew (the common gull of Eurasia and northeastern North America)

 Context examples 

“I’ll see to it, sir,” said I, and away I ran to the mews in Little Ryder Street, where my uncle stabled his horses.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They had driven him home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The mews were active, the Piccadilly houses being mostly in occupation.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Here he mewed so like a kitten that Toto pricked up his ears and looked everywhere to see where she was.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

They growled and barked like detestable dogs, mewed, and flapped their arms and crowed.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Holmes’s knowledge of the byways of London was extraordinary, and on this occasion he passed rapidly and with an assured step through a network of mews and stables, the very existence of which I had never known.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The ass brayed, the dog barked, the cat mewed, and the cock screamed; and then they all broke through the window at once, and came tumbling into the room, amongst the broken glass, with a most hideous clatter!

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

So say the Serpentine-mews, to a man.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Van Helsing and I tried to make inquiry at the back of the house; but the mews was deserted and no one had seen him depart.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the garden.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)