meow
Americannoun
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meows
plural
-
the characteristic sound a cat makes.
-
a spiteful or catty remark.
verb (used without object)
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meows,
present (3rd person singular)
-
meowed,
past participle, past
-
meowing
present participle
-
to make the sound of a cat.
-
to make a spiteful or catty remark.
verb
interjection
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
meowsimple
-
meowssimple
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have meowedperfect
-
has meowedperfect
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am meowingprogressive
-
are meowingprogressive
-
is meowingprogressive
-
have been meowingperfect progressive
-
has been meowingperfect progressive
Past
-
meowedsimple
-
had meowedperfect
-
was meowingprogressive
-
were meowingprogressive
-
had been meowingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of meow
First recorded in 1870–75; imitative
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.
See Examples For:
They may meow to ask for food, demand attention, or even "complain."
From Science Daily ● Feb. 11, 2026
He would eat and then meow to leave.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2025
"She's super tiny, her breath smells so bad, and she doesn't have a meow," the singer dotes.
From BBC ● Jan. 19, 2025
What is the meaning of a cat’s meow that grows louder and louder?
From New York Times ● Feb. 29, 2024
He was a kitten, With a meow Like the rusty latch On a gate.
From "Neighborhood Odes" by Gary Soto
Then, too soon after dawn, her demeanor abruptly changes: She bites my hands, legs, and neck, and meows in my face with a force that can only be described as belligerent.
From Slate ● Nov. 13, 2023
From a voice production point of view, the meows and the screeches are not special.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 4, 2023
Household cats are quite vocal to their human companions, using different meows to communicate different messages.
From Salon ● Aug. 11, 2023
“Yeah, I got what I wanted,” Spears says as Asghari meows.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 18, 2023
I named him Mango because the sounds of his purrs and his wheezes and his meows are all various shades of yellow-orange, like a mango in different seasons.
From "A Mango-Shaped Space" by Wendy Mass
Estuardo Mazariegos, who is running to replace Curren Price in a South L.A. district, meowed throughout the game, as he was playing a purple-striped humanoid cat named “Nine Lives E.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 24, 2026
“I thought I heard a meow, and I thought my mind’s playing tricks on me so I hollered his name out, and he meowed again,” Gibson said.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 22, 2021
Throughout the summer, it stretched awake in the morning, meowed at passersby during rush hour and curled into a sleepy ball after midnight.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 3, 2021
Updike introduced the character of a cat that both meowed and talked, a charming role that Schuller assigned to a high soprano.
From New York Times ● Apr. 9, 2021
He meowed as if to say he’d been waiting for me a long time and he was cold and hungry.
From "The Old Willis Place" by Mary Downing Hahn
In the more upmarket north of Tehran, many residents appeared to have left, with the meowing of cats and birdsong replacing the usual din of traffic jams.
From Barron's ● Mar. 3, 2026
The low frequency portion of the whinny comes from vocal fold vibration, much like a person singing or a cat meowing.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 25, 2026
A cat meowing for Hellmann’s mayonnaise, Peyton Manning chucking Bud Light beers to patrons in a bar and Kris Jenner stacking Oreo cookies.
From New York Times ● Feb. 6, 2024
"What I didn't know was that my other cat called Gracie had followed me there and her meowing snapped me out of it."
From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2023
The baffled mother cat looked at me uncertainly and followed at a cautious distance, meowing.
From "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez
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.
