maw
nounnounnounattested in dialogue
- United Kingdom//mɔː//
- United States//mɔ//
- //mɑ//
The upper digestive tract (where food enters the body), especially the mouth and jaws of a fearsome and ravenous creature; craw.
noun
- 1
archaicThe 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.
- 2
The upper digestive tract (where food enters the body), especially the mouth and jaws of a fearsome and ravenous creature; craw.
To save poor lambkins from the eagle's maw
“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.
- 3
slangThe mouth.
Shut your maw!
She fumbled with her bag, and produced from its little maw a scented handkerchief.
- 4
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.
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.
- 5
obsoleteAppetite; inclination.
Unless you had more maw to do me good.
- 6
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[…]
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.
Fish maw (swim bladder) is easily obtainable from your local fishmonger[.]
[...] 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[…]
Etymology
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
- 1
Mother.
Etymology
Variant of ma.
noun
- 1
A gull.
- 2
slangA person from a rural area of the Isle of Lewis, i.e. outwith Stornoway; a country bumpkin.
Etymology
See mew (“a gull”), Norwegian måke (“a gull”)
Forms
- plural
- maws
maw · The upper digestive tract (where food enters the body), especially the mouth and jaws of a fearsome and ravenous creature; craw.
Maw · A surname.max · Maximum; maximal.Max · A male given name from Latin.