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maw

noun
/mɔː/UK/mɔ/US/mɑ/

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”).

  1. derived from *mak-✻
  2. inherited from *magô✻ — “belly; stomach”
  3. inherited from *magō✻
  4. inherited from maga — “stomach; maw”
  5. inherited from mawe

Definitions

  1. 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.

  2. The upper digestive tract (where food enters the body), especially the mouth and jaws of…

    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. The mouth.

    • Shut your maw!
    • She fumbled with her bag, and produced from its little maw a scented handkerchief.
  4. ›+ 7 more definitions

    1. 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.

    2. Appetite

      Appetite; inclination.

      • Unless you had more maw to do me good.

    3. 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[.]

    4. Mother.

    5. A gull.

    6. Initialism of model, actress, whatever

      Initialism of model, actress, whatever: a young woman without much talent who attains celebrity through physical attractiveness

      • Through his Hollywood connections he filled out the ranks of our parties with troops of assorted aspiring starlets, production assistants and thrillseeking party dolls—MAWs (“Model/Actress/Whatever”).

    7. A surname.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for maw. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA