mew

plural mews

1. archaicdialectalpoeticA gull, seagull.

   From helm to sea they saw him leap, As arrow from the string, And dive into the water deep, As mew upon the wing.

   1954, J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

   1 more example

   A daungerous and detestable place, To which nor fish nor fowle did once approch, But yelling Meawes, with Seagulles hoarse and bace […]

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

plural mews

1. obsoleteA prison, or other place of confinement.
2. obsoleteA hiding place; a secret store or den.

   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.

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

3. obsoleteA breeding-cage for birds.
4. falconryA cage for hawks, especially while moulting.

   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.

   1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC

5. in pluralfalconryA building or set of buildings where moulting birds are kept.

present singular third person mews · participle present mewing · participle past mewed · past mewed · alternative mue

1. archaicTo shut away, confine, lock up.

   1693, John Dryden (translator), The Satires of Juvenal, London: Jacob Tonson, Satire 1, p. 10, […] Nay some have learn’d the trick To beg for absent persons; feign them sick, Close mew’d in their Sedans, for fear of air:

   4 more examples

   More pity that the eagle should be mew’d, While kites and buzzards prey at liberty.

   c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]

   To mew me in a Ship, is to inthrall Mee in a prison, that weare like to fall;

   c. 1596, John Donne, “Elegie XX: Loves Warre”, in Charles M. Coffin, editor, The Complete Poetry and Selected Prose of John Donne, New York: Modern Library, page 84

   When it came to his turn to mention Sir John Sparkle, he represented him as a man of an immense estate and narrow disposition, who mewed up his only child, a fine young lady, from the conversation of mankind, under the strict watch and inspection of an old governante, who was either so honest, envious, or insatiable, that nobody had been as yet able to make her a friend, or get access to her charge, though numbers attempted it every day […]

   1748, Tobias Smollett, chapter 50, in The Adventures of Roderick Random.

   […] it was all very well for Orlando to mew herself in her house at Blackfriars and pretend that the climate was the same […]

   1928, Virginia Woolf, chapter 5, in Orlando: A Biography, London: The Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished as Orlando: A Biography (eBook no. 0200331h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, July 2015

2. To moult.

   The hawk mewed his feathers.

   2 more examples

   Their nakedneſſe with ſackcloth let them hide, / And mue the veſt'ments of their ſilken pride; […]

   1620, Fra[ncis] Quarles, “Sect[ion] 10”, in A Feast for Wormes. Set Forth in a Poeme of the History of Ionah, London: […] Felix Kyngston, for Richard Moore, […], →OCLC, signature H3, recto

   Nine times the moon had mewed her horns […]

   1700, [John] Dryden, “Cinyras and Myrrha, Out of the Tenth Book of Ovid’s Metamorphoses”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 184

3. obsoleteTo cause to moult.
4. obsoleteTo shed antlers.

plural mews

1. The crying sound of a cat; a meow, especially of a kitten.
2. The crying sound of a gull or buzzard.
3. obsoleteAn exclamation of disapproval; a boo.

present singular third person mews · participle present mewing · participle past mewed · past mewed

1. especiallyTo meow.
2. To make its cry.

1. A cat's (especially a kitten's) cry.
2. A gull's or buzzard's cry.
3. archaicAn exclamation of disapproval; boo.

present singular third person mews · participle present mewing · participle past mewed · past mewed

1. intransitiveslangTo flatten one's tongue against the roof of the mouth, with the aim of improving jaw and facial structure.

1. A surname.

   Darren James Mew

   (name of an English record producer)