Some 16th-century Italian clergymen tried to ban coffee because they believed it to be “satanic.” However, Pope Clement VII loved coffee so much that he lifted the ban and had coffee baptized in 1600.
MEWSING
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
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Word of the Day
25 June 2025
DETENTION
(noun) a state of being confined (usually for a short time); “his detention was politically motivated”; “the prisoner is on hold”; “he is in the custody of police”
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