maw

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /mɔː/
• (US) IPA^(key): /mɔ/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /mɑ/
• Homophones: MAW, more (non-rhotic accents)
• Rhymes: -ɔː

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Etymology 1

From Middle English mawe, maghe, maȝe, from Old English maga (“stomach; maw”), from Proto-West Germanic *magō, from Proto-Germanic *magô (“belly; stomach”), from Proto-Indo-European *mak-, *maks- (“bag, bellows, belly”).

Noun

maw (plural maws)

1. (archaic) The stomach, especially of an animal.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC:

     So Death shall be deceav'd his glut, and with us two / Be forc'd to satisfie his Rav'nous Maw.

2. The upper digestive tract (where food enters the body), especially the mouth and jaws of a fearsome and ravenous creature.
   • 1818, John Keats, “(please specify the page)”, in Endymion: A Poetic Romance, London: for Taylor and Hessey, , →OCLC:

     To save poor lambkins from the eagle's maw

   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 9, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

     “I saw the opening maw of hell, With endless pains and sorrows there; Which none but they that feel can tell— Oh, I was plunging to despair.

   • 2017, “Deluminate”, performed by Full of Hell:

     Once more, we're thrust
     Into the vacuum of God's yawning maw

   • 2022, “Nevermore”, performed by Lamb of God:

     The rapacious maw of our despair

1. (slang, derogatory) The mouth.

   Synonyms: trap, yap

   Shut your maw!

   • 1920, Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “The Escape”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, →OCLC, page 273:

     She fumbled with her bag, and produced from its little maw a scented handkerchief.

2. Any large, insatiable or perilous opening.
   • 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 23:

     Adam requires a touch of feminine lace and a whisper of diaphanous silk, not a direct vision of the gaping maw of the human vulva.

   • 2011 October 11, “Jumping Jack Flash (Live 1973)” (track 14), in Brussels Affair (Live 1973)‎, performed by The Rolling Stones:

     One two! I was born in a cross-fire hurricane. And I howled at the maw in the drivin' rain. But it's all right now, in fact, it's a gas. But it's all right. I'm Jumpin' Jack Flash. It's a gas, gas, gas.

3. Appetite; inclination.
   • 1607 (first performance), Francis Beaumont, “The Knight of the Burning Pestle”, in Comedies and Tragedies , London: Humphrey Robinson, , and for Humphrey Moseley , published 1679, →OCLC, Act I, scene i:

     Unless you had more maw to do me good.

4. The swim bladder of a fish, especially when used as food in Chinese cuisine.
   • 1998, Charles Gordon Sinclair, International Dictionary of Food and Cooking, Taylor & Francis, →ISBN, page 203:

     fish maw: The buoyancy bladder of a fish similar in appearance to the mammalian lung. The maw of the conger pike is used in Chinese cooking and is usually sold in dried form which needs reconstituting for about 3 hours and treating with […]

   • 2009 April 28, Teresa M. Chen, A Tradition of Soup: Flavors from China's Pearl River Delta, North Atlantic Books, →ISBN, page 70:

     Fish maw is the commercial term for the dried swim bladders of large fish like sturgeon. Fish maw has no fishy taste and absorbs the flavors of other ingredients.

   • 2010 08, Eddie Dowd, Traditional Chinese Medicine and Fertility Treatment, Paragon Publishing, →ISBN, page 150:

     Fish maw (swim bladder) is easily obtainable from your local fishmonger[.]

   • 2020 May 12, K. Gopakumar, Balagopal Gopakumar, Health Foods from Ocean Animals, CRC Press, →ISBN, page 172:

     [...] fish maw is light, white in color, and has a spongy texture. Dried fish maw is tasteless which makes it a good complementary addition to many dishes since it can absorb the flavors of other ingredients when it is cooked with other food […]

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

By shortening of mother

Noun

maw (plural maws)

1. (dialect, colloquial) Mother.

Etymology 3

See mew (“a gull”), Norwegian måke (“a gull”)

Noun

maw (plural maws)

1. A gull.

See also

• mee-maw

Anagrams

• WMA, awm, mwa

Abinomn

Noun

maw

1. butterfly

Cornish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mæʊ/

Noun

maw m (plural mebyon)

1. boy

   Me a wrug desky Kernowak termyn me ve maw.

   I learnt Cornish when I was a boy.

Synonyms

• mab

Khasi

Alternative forms

• máw

Etymology

From Proto-Khasian *smaːw, from Proto-Austroasiatic *t₂mɔʔ (“stone”). Cognate with Vietnamese đá, Mon တၟံ, Nyah Kur ฮมอ, Khmer ថ្ម (thmɑɑ), Eastern Bru tamaw, Bahnar tơmo, Parauk simaw.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /maːu/

Noun

maw m

1. rock, stone

Derived terms

References

• Singh, U Nissor (1906) Khasi-English dictionary‎, Shillong: Eastern Bengal and Assam Secretariat Press, page 130. Searchable online at SEAlang.net.

Mapudungun

Noun

maw (Unified spelling)

1. rain

Middle English

Noun

maw

1. Alternative form of mawe (“stomach”)

Somali

Etymology

From Proto-Cushitic *ma?-/*miʔ- (to be wet) from Proto-Afroasiatic *maʔ-. Compare Egyptian mw, Aasax maʔa, also Dahalo maʔa; Hebrew מים (máyim),
Classical Syriac ܡܝܐ (mayyā) and Somali maanyo and Somali ma'wi.

Noun

maw m (plural mawooyin m)

1. water container, water-jar

References

• Puglielli, Annarita, Mansuur, Cabdalla Cumar (2012) “ma'wi”, in Qaamuuska Af-Soomaliga‎, Rome: RomaTrE-Press, →ISBN, page 613