Mew , n. The common cry of a cat. Shak.
Mew , v. i. [Of imitative origin; cf. G. miauen.]
To cry as a cat. [Written also meaw, meow.] Shak.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Mew (?), n. [AS. m&?;w, akin to D.
meeuw, G. möwe, OHG. m&?;h, Icel. mār.]
(Zoöl.) A gull, esp. the
common British species (Larus canus); called also sea mew, maa, mar, mow, and cobb.
Hear it pronounced