maw
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maw¹
- /mɔː/ UK
- /mɔ/ US
- /mɑ/ cot caught merger
Sounds like MAW, more (non-rhotic accents) · Rhymes with -ɔː
Where it comes from
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”).
Cognates
Cognate with West Frisian mage, Dutch maag (“stomach; belly”), German Low German Maag, German Magen (“stomach”), Danish mave,
Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish mage (“stomach; belly”), and also with Welsh megin (“bellows”), archaic Russian мошна́ (mošná, “pocket, bag”), Lithuanian mãkas (“purse”), Finnish maha (“stomach”), Estonian magu (“stomach”).
noun maws
- The upper digestive tract (where food enters the body), especially the mouth and jaws of an animal. To save poor lambkins from the eagle's maw
- The mouth and jaws of a furry. […] / As you lift your shirt I'm closer / grab me by the maw into your arm- // […] / Sniff it with my maw I / […] / Smelling all of you its / […] / Getting me hard gimme more / […] / more more
- The mouth. Shut your maw!
- Any large, insatiable or perilous opening. 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.
- Appetite; inclination. Unless you had more maw to do me good.
- The swim bladder of a fish, especially when used as food in Chinese cuisine. 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[…]
- The stomach, especially of an animal. So Death shall be deceav'd his glut, and with us two / Be forc'd to satisfie his Rav'nous Maw.
maw²
- /mɔː/ UK
- /mɔ/ US
- /mɑ/ cot caught merger
Sounds like MAW, more (non-rhotic accents) · Rhymes with -ɔː
Where it comes from
Variant of ma.
noun maws
- Mother.
maw³
- /mɔː/ UK
- /mɔ/ US
- /mɑ/ cot caught merger
Sounds like MAW, more (non-rhotic accents) · Rhymes with -ɔː
Where it comes from
See mew (“a gull”),
Norwegian måke (“a gull”)
noun maws
- A gull.
-
A person from a rural area of the Isle of Lewis, i.e. outwith Stornoway; a country bumpkin.
Opposite: townie
MAW⁴
- /mɔː/ UK
- /mɔ/ US
- /mɑ/ cot caught merger
Rhymes with -ɔː
noun MAWs
- Initialism of model, actress, whatever: a young woman without much talent who attains celebrity through physical attractiveness Tamara was one of the original wild-child tribe - up to now, famous mainly for being famous. She has done a quantity of high-profile dabbling in modelling, acting, television and journalism (file under MAW - Model, Actress, Whatever - or WAIF - Why Am I Famous?)
Maw⁵
Where it comes from
* As an English surname, from an obsolete derivative of Proto-Germanic *makô (“mate, relative”), comparable to modern match.
* Also as an English surname, from archaic mew (“seagull”); compare the surname Mew.
* Also as an English surname, from archaic maw (“belly”).
proper noun Maws
- A surname.
Translations
Talk about this word "maw." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/maw. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. maw. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/maw "maw." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/maw.Cite this
@misc{maw_2026,
title = {maw},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/maw},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
