mewing
[ myoo-ing ]
What does mewing mean?
Every generation has its own beauty hacks. In the early aughts, it meant plucking your brows into pencil-thin arches. Today, it means…mewing?
Mewing is slang for the viral technique of pressing your tongue against the roof of your mouth in an effort to contour the jawline and enhance facial structure. This practice is part of a controversial online subculture known as looksmaxxing, largely made up of young men who promote sometimes extreme methods of enhancing one’s physical appearance. Mewers will sometimes place one finger against their mouth in a shhh gesture, then point at their jawline to cheekily signal an inability to speak (because they are too busy mewing).
Despite its popularity with Gen Z and Alpha, orthodontic experts have denied claims that mewing has any effect on a person’s jawline shape.
Where does mewing come from?
Mewing is named after British orthodontist John Mew, who developed the technique in the 1970s as part of his field of “orthotropics,” an orthodontics alternative focused on improving jaw posture in children. (The UK’s General Dental Council eventually revoked Mew’s dentistry license.)
While John Mew did not coin the term mewing, his methods were popularized through online instructional videos uploaded to YouTube by his son, fellow orthodontist Mike Mew, in the 2010s. The practice was then picked up by online incel communities, and the term mewing emerged as a reference to the Mew family name.
In its traditional usage, a mew describes the high-pitched sounds of cats or birds, but it has nothing to do with this lookmaxxing type of mewing.
Examples of mewing
Shhhhhh mewing
Shoutout to everyone out there silently mewing just in case it works 👋
Who uses mewing?
Popular looksmaxxers like Clavicular promote the mewing technique on YouTube and in their livestreams. While some people post seriously about mewing, others may do so in a more tongue-in-cheek manner (although their tongues may literally be on the roofs of their mouths). You’ll find humorous posts on social platforms that feature everything from cartoon characters to animals to political leaders who appear to be mewing.
NOTE
This is not meant to be a formal definition of mewing like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of mewing that will help our users expand their word mastery.
