Mew

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /mjuː/

Definitions

1. To produce a sound resembling that of a cat
2. To restrict movement or freedom by placing within a confined area
3. To utter a soft, high-pitched sound similar to a kitten's cry ; to place someone or something in a limited, enclosed space

Etymology: The verb "mew" is one of those English words whose cat sound came from a bird. Its root meant "gull": Old French "mouette" and Middle English "mewe" both named the sea-gull, and the "mew" that means a cat's cry is a back-formation or imitation that grew up around the bird's call. Earlier, the same root gave the English word for a moulting cage, since a hawk was kept in a "mew" while it shed its feathers. That sense comes from the Old French "muer", "to moult", which the Middle English word for the cage took up. Related forms reach far. West Frisian "meau", Dutch "meeuw", and German "Möwe" all name the gull, and the same imitative root appears in Latvian "maût" ("to roar") and Old Church Slavonic "myjati" ("to mew"). Scholars link these through a shared sound-pattern rather than a single documented ancestor, so the connection is best read as a family of cries and birds that echo one another. The mewing that people now associate with an orthodontic practice is a different matter entirely: it takes its name from the British orthodontists John Mew and his son Michael Mew, who promoted the facial-posture technique.

Synonyms: meow, cry