Daw (?), n. [OE. dawe; akin to OHG. taha, MHG. tahe, tahele, G. dohle. Cf. Caddow.] Zool.

A European bird of the Crow family (Corvus monedula), often nesting in church towers and ruins; a jackdaw.

The loud daw, his throat displaying, draw The whole assembly of his fellow daws. Waller.

⇒ The daw was reckoned as a silly bird, and a daw meant a simpleton. See in Shakespeare: -- "Then thou dwellest with daws too." (Coriolanus iv. 5, 1. 47.) Skeat.

 

© Webster 1913.


Daw, v. i. [OE. dawen. See Dawn.]

To dawn. [Obs.] See Dawn.

 

© Webster 1913.


Daw, v. t. [Contr. fr. Adaw.]

1.

To rouse.

[Obs.]

2.

To daunt; to terrify.

[Obs.]

B. Jonson.

 

© Webster 1913.