paw

plural paws

1. The soft foot of a mammal or other animal, generally a quadruped, that has claws or nails; comparable to a human hand or foot.

   Synonyms: hand, foot

2. alsohumorousslanglifestyleA hand.

   Get your grubby paws off my things!

   2 more examples

   Mrs. Hauksbee laid her hand lightly upon the ungloved paw that rested on the turned-backed ’rickshaw hood, and, looking the man full in the face, said tenderly, almost too tenderly, “I believe in you if you mistrust yourself.”

   1889, Rudyard Kipling, “The Education of Otis Yeere”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 35

   Abel smiled broadly and proffered his hamlike paw to the chief […]

   1935, The American Magazine

present singular third person paws · participle present pawing · participle past pawed · past pawed

1. Of an animal, to touch (something) with a paw.
   1. transitiveOf an animal, to dig through (something, such as a garbage can) with paws.
   2. transitiveOf an animal, to draw the forefoot along the ground; to beat or scrape with the forefoot.

      He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength: he goeth on to meet the armed men.

      1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 39:21

2. broadlytransitiveTo touch (someone) in a sexual way.

   He was good-looking, masculine, funny, charismatic and he could dance the cha-cha-cha. And he’s never a brute. He’s flirting with women but he’s not pawing them.

   2023 October 6, Ryan Gilbey, quoting Illeana Douglas, “The double life of Rock Hudson: ‘Let’s be frank, he was a horndog!’”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

   4 more examples

   IronMan used to be good in this way, back in the '80s. […] They wouldn't subscribe to the old, "Let's put a male bodybuilder with silicone babes pawing him" cover that's mainstay now.

   1997 August 17, Robert Spector, misc.fitness.weights (Usenet)

   So, Katherine was out with Luke and they were both quite dolled up and swoon-worthy. Katherine fawned all over Luke and pawed him, but to what end? Was Stefan supposed to believe that Luke and Katherine have some sort of a thing going? What was the point of this display from Katherine's perspective?

   1997 October 26, Amy McWilliams, quoting Verbotene, rec.arts.tv.soaps.abc (Usenet)

   Subtlety is great, but what exactly happened with Jessica and the cop during sex that he locked her up afterwards? Also, what was the item she nicked from his shirt while she pawed him?

   2002 July 18, Lurker Dave, rec.arts.comics.marvel.universe (Usenet)

   Tonight there are no drug deals, no fights, only the random foolishness of the young and inebriated. They stagger with linked arms down the middle of the street. They paw at each other.

   2018 February, Robert Draper, “They are Watching You—and Everything Else on the Planet: Technology and Our Increasing Demand for Security have Put Us All under Surveillance. Is Privacy Becoming just a Memory?”, in National Geographic, Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 14 Jun 2018

   Synonyms: feel up, fiddle, fondle, grope, palpate, touch up

3. broadlytransitiveTo clumsily dig (through something).

   Synonyms: fumble, go through, rummage

4. datedtransitiveTo flatter.

plural paws

1. alternativenonstandard or rusticAlternative form of pa (“father”).

   Synonyms: ayr, ba, baba, da, dad, dada, daddio, daddy

plural PAWs

1. abbreviationuncountableAbbreviation of plasma arc welding (an arc welding technology).

   Synonyms: PAW welding

2. abbreviationcountableAbbreviation of plasma arc weld (a weld created with the PAW process).

   Synonyms: PAW weld

3. abbreviationcountableinitialismuncountableinitialism of physics analysis workstation.

   PAW is a program package to assist physicists in the analysis and presentation of their data.

   1988, R. Brun, O. Couet, N. Cremel, A. Nathaniel, A. Rademakers, Q121: PAW - Physics Analysis Workstation Package

   2 more examples

   The graphical functions in PAW are based on a high-level interface to underlying basic graphic systems.

   1989, H. Johnstad, “Physics Analysis Workstation”, in IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, volume 36, number 5, pages 1568-1571

   PAW contains several thousand subroutines and programs that are written in FORTRAN, C and even some assembly language code, which is built on top of a library called the CERN Program Library (CERNLIB).

   2015, Joey Bernard, Physics Analysis Workstation