mewl
Americanverb (used without object)
verb
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
mewlsimple
-
mewlssimple
-
have mewledperfect
-
has mewledperfect
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am mewlingprogressive
-
are mewlingprogressive
-
is mewlingprogressive
-
have been mewlingperfect progressive
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has been mewlingperfect progressive
Past
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mewledsimple
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had mewledperfect
-
was mewlingprogressive
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were mewlingprogressive
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had been mewlingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of mewl
First recorded in 1590–1600; imitative
Explanation
To mewl is to cry in a feeble way, like a tired baby or a sick cat. The pitiful sound of kittens as they mewl for their distracted mother is heartbreaking. There's a pitiful quality when someone mewls, a weakness and vulnerability to the soft sound, which usually characterizes the cry of a baby or young animal. Shakespeare used it in his famous "All the world's a stage" speech from As You Like It, describing an infant "mewling and puking in the nurse's arms." Mewl is imitative, one of those words formed by mimicking the sound they describe.
Vocabulary lists containing mewl
Yelping and Yowling: Synonyms for "Cry"
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Excerpt from "As You Like It"
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Words for Hiddlestoners: "Guaranteed to Make You Swoon"
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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.
See Examples For:
But then I hear Chad Bianco and Steve Hilton mewl, and I’m suddenly hoping alongside Anita that someone vanquishes their foes with an unassailable vision.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 28, 2026
The crowd’s roar was more of a mewl.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 14, 2021
Here’s a taster: “Its glass eyes seemed to come into proper focus, and then the doll flinched and started to shake. Its mouth fell open, emitting a low, eerie mewl …”
From The Guardian ● Oct. 31, 2019
The reporter began to mewl and promised he would not show the footage of this exchange, saying: “No, I’m not, I swear I’m not. You know me better than that.”
From New York Times ● Dec. 12, 2014
I could not even mewl like a kitten.
From "Chains" by Laurie Halse Anderson
“You’re using a lot of words I don’t fully understand,” mewls Ainsley.
From Salon ● Nov. 16, 2025
The rest of the time, Cedillo spoke in the mewls of a man who once roared.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 15, 2022
In Queen of Earth, Elisabeth Moss makes many: As the prickly Catherine, she deploys a collection of clucks, mewls, and barbed giggles, her voice the only bulwark against the collapse.
From Slate ● Aug. 26, 2015
The cat, Marie Antoinette, mewls, “Nothing is as it’s supposed to be.”
From New York Times ● Jan. 22, 2015
The new-born babe mewls on the mother's breast, in a hammock formed out of a kerchief.
From The Wonders of Instinct Chapters in the Psychology of Insects by Teixeira de Mattos, Alexander
There was cat food, a cat litter box and a cat that came in and mewled reliably throughout the day.
From New York Times ● Oct. 15, 2018
The crowd was hot and restless; people fanned themselves, and toddlers squirmed and mewled on their mother’s laps.
From New York Times ● Aug. 27, 2013
We ran for hours, Chi-Boy and Miig taking turns carrying Minerva like a child on their backs while she wailed and sang and mewled in cycles.
From "The Marrow Thieves" by Cherie Dimaline
From somewhere inside Bob’s uniform, the skeleton kitten mewled in agreement.
From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan
George Washington mewled and ran his claws along the side of a box of books, and Mama turned her wrath onto the cat.
From "The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street" by Karina Yan Glaser
That the drug makers are joining the negotiation process even as they engage in judicial whining and mewling about it may be taken as a testament to the cleverness of the program’s design.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 11, 2023
Other than those few feline visitors, the only real cat energy came from an enchanting handful of sweetly mewling kittens brought by shelter organizations.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 17, 2023
The '80s edition of the trope is a mewling mess who triumphs by sheer luck or last-second intervention of some other savior, usually a man previously believed to be dead.
From Salon ● May 30, 2022
In what world would the film director behind such askew moments as the mewling baby from “Eraserhead,” the dumpster monster from “Mulholland Drive” and Richard Farnsworth on a tractor participate in something … normal?
From New York Times ● Jun. 13, 2018
He had not moved from his position by the door, and the black kitten was winding itself around his ankles and mewling.
From "The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street" by Karina Yan Glaser
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.
