MEWSED

MEWS

Mews, n. sing. & pl. Etym: [Prop. pl. of mew. See Mew a cage.]

Definition: An alley where there are stables; a narrow passage; a confined place. [Eng.] Mr. Turveydrop's great room... was built out into a mews at the back. Dickens.

MEW

Mew, n. Etym: [AS. m, akin to D. meeuw, G. möwe, OHG. m, Icel. mar.] (Zoöl.)

Definition: A gull, esp. the common British species (Larus canus); called also sea mew, maa, mar, mow, and cobb.

Mew, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Mewed; p. pr. & vb. n. Mewing.] Etym: [OE. muen, F. muer, fr. L. mutare to change, fr. movere to move. See Move, and cf. Mew a cage, Molt.]

Definition: To shed or cast; to change; to molt; as, the hawk mewed his feathers. Nine times the moon had mewed her horns. Dryden.

Mew, v. i.

Definition: 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, n. Etym: [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. t. Etym: [From Mew a cage.]

Definition: 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, v. i. Etym: [Of imitative origin; cf. G. miauen.]

Definition: To cry as a cat. [Written also meaw, meow.] Shak.

Mew, n.

Definition: The common cry of a cat. Shak.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition