Mew (?), n. [AS. mw, akin to D. meeuw, G. mowe, OHG. mh, Icel. mar.] Zool.
A gull, esp. the common British species (Larus canus); called also sea mew, maa, mar, mow, and cobb.
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Mew, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Mewed; p. pr. & vb. n. Mewing.] [OE. muen, F. muer, fr. L. mutare to change, fr. movere to move. See Move, and cf. Mew a cage, Molt.]
To shed or cast; to change; to molt; as, the hawk mewed his feathers.
Nine times the moon had mewed her horns.
Dryden.
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Mew, v. i.
To cast the feathers; to molt; hence, to change; to put on a new appearance.
Now everything doth mew,
And shifts his rustic winter robe.
Turbervile.
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Mew, n. [OE. mue, F. mue change of feathers, scales, skin, the time or place when the change occurs, fr. muer to molt, mew, L. mutare to change. See 2d Mew.]
1.
A cage for hawks while mewing; a coop for fattening fowls; hence, any inclosure; a place of confinement or shelter; -- in the latter sense usually in the plural.
Full many a fat partrich had he in mewe.
Chaucer.
Forthcoming from her darksome mew.
Spenser.
Violets in their secret mews.
Wordsworth.
2.
A stable or range of stables for horses; -- compound used in the plural, and so called from the royal stables in London, built on the site of the king's mews for hawks.
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Mew, v. t. [From Mew a cage.]
To shut up; to inclose; to confine, as in a cage or other inclosure.
More pity that the eagle should be mewed.
Shak.
Close mewed in their sedans, for fear of air.
Dryden.
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Mew, v. i. [Of imitative origin; cf. G. miauen.]
To cry as a cat.
[Written also
meaw,
meow.]
Shak.
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Mew, n.
The common cry of a cat.
Shak.
© Webster 1913.