Mohawk
noun
a member of a tribe of the most easterly of the Iroquois Five Nations, formerly resident along the Mohawk River, New York.
Mohawk
American
[moh-hawk]
/ ˈmoʊ hɔk /
noun
-
Mohawks,
plural
-
Mohawk
plural
-
a member of a tribe of the most easterly of the Iroquois Five Nations, formerly resident along the Mohawk River, New York.
-
the Iroquoian language of the Mohawk Indians.
-
a river flowing E from central New York to the Hudson. 148 miles (240 km) long.
-
Also called Mohawk haircut. (often lowercase) a hairstyle in which the head is shaved bare except for a strip of hair, usually with blunt, brushlike ends, down the center of the scalp from the forehead to the nape of the neck.
-
Military. a twin turboprop, two-seat U.S. Army aircraft fitted with cameras, radar, and infrared sensors and designed to monitor enemy operations.
Mohawk
1
British
/ ˈməʊhɔːk /
noun
-
a member of a North American Indian people formerly living along the Mohawk River; one of the Iroquois peoples
-
the language of this people, belonging to the Iroquoian family
mohawk
2
British
/ ˈməʊhɔːk /
noun
-
skating a half turn from either edge of either skate to the corresponding edge of the other skate
-
Also called (in Britain and certain other countries): mohican. a punk hairstyle in which the head is shaved at the sides and the remaining strip of hair is worn stiffly erect and sometimes brightly coloured
Mohawk
3
British
/ ˈməʊhɔːk /
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of mohawk
C19: after Mohawk 1
Explanation
A mohawk is a hairstyle created by shaving the hair on each side of the head, leaving a wide strip of longer hair down the middle. While mohawks are commonly associated with punk music fans in the 1980s, David Beckham and Mr. T have also sported this hair style. The mohawk has been around for centuries, worn by groups as varied as 600 BCE Scythian warriors and World War II American paratroopers. It's perhaps most famous for its popularity among fans of punk and hardcore music starting in the 1980s. While it's named for the Mohawk tribe of Native Americans, it more closely resembles the way the Pawnees traditionally styled their hair than the way the Mohawks did, with a square patch at the back of the head).
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:
Auto parts provider LKQ, chemical company Solstice Advanced Materials, and flooring manufacturer Mohawk Industries will be booted out of the S&P 500 as part of the reshuffle.
From Barron's ● Dec. 8, 2025
Kiba, her 3.5-pound papillon with a purple Mohawk, pulled 556 pounds on rails.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 20, 2025
L.A.’s Mohawk General Store has mastered the ultimate wardrobe building block via its Smock Big Pocket tee.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 27, 2024
He was moved on Friday to the Rikers Island jail complex from the Mohawk Correctional Facility where he had been since 2023.
From BBC ● Apr. 27, 2024
I could see the swath of Chas’s Mohawk pointing at me, and the whites of his eyes looking straight across at me, where I sat on the bunk bed.
From "Winger" by Andrew Smith
In 1959, he had sported a mohawk to honor Native Americans.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 26, 2026
The “Mad Max” universe was never that cautionary, not if you yourself ever wondered how you’d make it through societal meltdown and what kind of mohawk you’d get.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 16, 2024
"A lot of the hairs stand basically straight upright, and so it gives it a bit of a mohawk type look."
From BBC ● Mar. 21, 2024
Friends called him “Kurka,” Ukrainian for chicken, because of the mop of curly hair he styled into a mohawk as a youth.
From New York Times ● Oct. 29, 2023
The purple mohawk was long gone, but Sydney still felt like the same person who’d tormented the faculty at Wallangarra.
From "City Spies" by James Ponti
Dozens of men, women and children died in the surprise attack, but, respecting kinship ties, the attacking Mohawks spared all save one of the 30 pro-English Mohawks inside the stockade.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026
He was a descendant of Mohawks, and this was a story of the Osage and their victimization in Oklahoma a hundred years ago.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 13, 2023
The Mohawks, like tribes in Michigan and other states, set up their own regulations.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 24, 2022
That force had recently been locked in a sometimes tense standoff with several Mohawks from Six Nations who were trying to halt a construction project on land deeded to them by Britain in 1784.
From New York Times ● Dec. 11, 2021
If they were all punk rockers with pink Mohawks and multiple piercings—maybe with one chess club geek thrown in—he could make that work.
From "Drama High" by Michael Sokolove
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.
