maw
1 Americannoun
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the mouth, throat, or gullet of an animal, especially a carnivorous mammal.
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the crop or craw of a fowl.
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the stomach, especially that of an animal.
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a cavernous opening that resembles the open jaws of an animal.
the gaping maw of hell.
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the symbolic or theoretical center of a voracious hunger or appetite of any kind.
the ravenous maw of Death.
noun
noun
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the mouth, throat, crop, or stomach of an animal, esp of a voracious animal
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informal the mouth or stomach of a greedy person
Etymology
Origin of maw1
before 900; Middle English mawe, Old English maga; cognate with Dutch maag, German Magen, Old Norse magi
Origin of maw2
Variant of ma
Explanation
If you're staring into the maw of a wild animal you should probably think about running away as fast as you can. A maw, you see, is an informal term for a mouth. There's something ravenous as well as ferocious about the term maw, and in fact it comes from the Old English word maga meaning "stomach." Occasionally you may find it applied to human rather than animal usage, especially when implying comical greed, as in "he was stuffing cupcakes down his maw as fast as he could." Other colloquial terms for mouth, such as piehole, gob and trap tend to suggest a tone more amused than fearful.
Vocabulary lists containing maw
Romeo and Juliet
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The Tragedy of Macbeth
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The Odyssey
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Some ingredients commonly found in Chinese fine dining include qi-boosting gelatinous fish maw, collagen-rich bird’s nest and nutrient-dense sea cucumber.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 18, 2025
Nothing has come from months of sending my applications into the gaping maw of a broken ATS.
From Slate • Oct. 6, 2025
There also would have been the practical difficulty of running the nation’s most populous state, a maw of endless crises and challenges, while at the same time pursuing the presidency.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 30, 2025
If this much solar mass in a young universe was annually being forever lost into the gaping maw of a black hole, it would be less unusual.
From Salon • Sep. 18, 2024
He was working on the big steel-cutting maw of a continuous mining machine.
From "October Sky" by Homer Hickam
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
