maw1
[maw]
- the mouth, throat, or gullet of an animal, especially a carnivorous mammal.
- the crop or craw of a fowl.
- the stomach, especially that of an animal.
- a cavernous opening that resembles the open jaws of an animal: the gaping maw of hell.
- the symbolic or theoretical center of a voracious hunger or appetite of any kind: the ravenous maw of Death.
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Origin of maw1
before 900; Middle English mawe, Old English maga; cognate with Dutch maag, German Magen, Old Norse magi
maw2
[maw]
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Origin of maw2
variant of ma
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for maw
Contemporary Examples
Privately, they admit they have to provide the data that feed that maw.
The other is that people actually lose skills (even very basic skills) and many of them fall into the maw of depression.
Every time I step onto an airplane, I turn to the right and take a good, hard stare into the maw of the engine.
Having been caught red-handed with a smoking bong firmly pasted to his maw, the long knives are out for the Olympic hero.
Historical Examples
His eyes gleamed like two lamps and he was spitting fire and flame from his maw.
The Chinese Fairy BookVarious
Let them boil gently till the liquor is reduced to three pints, and strain it off; when only milk warm, pour it on the maw.
He had come deliberately to thrust his head into the lion's maw that he might save her brother.
Mistress WildingRafael Sabatini
"That'll do, Maw," she said, dismissing her parent with a nod.
Snow-Bound at Eagle'sBret Harte
Maw allowed you woz talkin' a furrin' tongue all along, but I—sakes alive!
Snow-Bound at Eagle'sBret Harte
maw
- the mouth, throat, crop, or stomach of an animal, esp of a voracious animal
- informal the mouth or stomach of a greedy person
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Word Origin
Old English maga; related to Middle Dutch maghe, Old Norse magi
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for maw
n.
Old English maga "stomach" (of men and animals; in Modern English only of animals unless insultingly), from Proto-Germanic *magon "bag, stomach" (cf. Old Frisian maga, Old Norse magi, Danish mave, Middle Dutch maghe, Dutch maag, Old High German mago, German Magen "stomach"), from PIE *mak- "leather bag" (cf. Welsh megin "bellows," Lithuanian makas, Old Church Slavonic mošina "bag, pouch"). Meaning "throat, gullet" is from 1520s. Metaphoric of voracity from late 14c.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper