▪ I. maw, n.1
(mɔː)
Forms: 1 maᵹa, maᵹe, 2 mahᵹe, 3 mahe, maugh, 3–7 mawe, 4 magh, maȝe, mau(e, 4 maw.
[Com. Teut.: OE. maᵹa wk. masc. (once maᵹe wk. fem.) = OFris. maga, MDu. maghe (mod.Du. maag) fem., OHG. mago (MHG., mod.G. magen) masc., ON. mage wk. masc. (Sw. mage, Da. mave):—OTeut. *magon-.]
1. a. The stomach (of men and animals); the cavity of the stomach. Now only (exc. in ludicrous use) applied to the stomach of animals, esp. mammals; spec. the last of the four stomachs of a ruminant. † to close the maw, to stop looseness of the bowels. † to chaw (one's) maw, to fret internally.
| c 725 Corpus Gloss. S 573 (Hessels) Stomachum, maᵹa. c 1000 ælfric Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 159/14 Uentriculus, maᵹe. Ibid. 161/2 Stomachus, maᵹa. c 1000 Sax. Leechd. II. 4 He cymð of acolodum maᵹan. a 1225 Ancr. R. 370 Þe on was iwuned, uor his kolde mawe uorto nutten hote spices. c 1275 XI Pains of Hell 148 in O.E. Misc. 151 Gripes freteþ heore Mawen. c 1386 Chaucer Man of Law's T. 388 Who kepte Ionas in the fisshes mawe Til he was spouted vp at Nynyuee? 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. xvii. 218 The man that muche hony eet his mawe hit engleymeth. c 1430 Two Cookery-bks. 39 The grete wombe of þe Schepe, þat is, þe mawe. 1513 Bk. Keruynge in Babees Bk. 266 Mylke, creme, & Iouncat, they wyll close the mawe, & so dooth a posset. 1544 T. Phaer Regim. Life (1553) E ij b, The mawe of an olde cocke dried, and made in pouder, is exceding good to drink in red wine. 1590 Spenser F.Q. i. iv. 30 But inwardly he chawed his owne maw At neighbours welth. 1605 Shakes. Macb. iii. iv. 73 If Charnell houses, and our Graues must send Those that we bury, backe; our Monuments Shall be the Mawes of Kytes. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 354 Euery tenth man being by lot tithed to the shambles, and more returning in their fellowes mawes, then on their owne legges. 1706 E. Ward Wooden World Diss. (1708) 102 It's a plain Symptom, that his Maw's out of order. 1727–41 Chambers Cycl. s.v., The Abomasus, popularly called the maw, is the last of the four [sc. stomachs of ruminants]. 1769 Mrs. Raffald Eng. Housekpr. (1778) 17 Scald the maw or paunch [of the turtle]. 1819 Byron Juan ii. xxxiv, Fright cured the qualms Of all the luckless landsmen's sea-sick maws. 1851 Mayne Reid Scalp Hunt. xxxviii, The night-hawk has filled his ravenous maw. 1861 J. Pycroft Agony Point (1862) 381 A shark with a sailor's baccy-box in his maw. 1887 W. Morris Odyss. ix. 296 Whenas the Cyclops had filled his mighty maw. |
b. transf. and fig.: chiefly with reference to a metaphorical voracity.
(Cf. sense 3, which in figurative uses blends with this.)
| c 1386 Chaucer Shipman's Prol. 28 Ther is but litil latyn in my mawe. 1599 Middleton Micro-Cynicon Wks. (Bullen) VIII. 134 The wide maws of more scopious lakes. 1607 Shakes. Timon iii. iv. 52 Then they could smile, and fawne vpon his debts, And take downe th' Intrest into their glutt'nous Mawes. 1654 Whitlock Zootomia 403 Time..whose Maw hath devoured the very Ruines of those stately Piles [etc.]. 1667 Milton P.L. x. 991 Death Shall..with us two Be forc'd to satisfie his Rav'nous Maw. 1742 Young Nt. Th. vii. 922 Pluck'd from foul Devastation's famish'd Maw. 1833 Marryat P. Simple xxix, Yellow Jack had filled his maw, and left the rest of us alone. 1875 Gladstone Glean. VI. xxxvi. 218 The devouring maw of the agents of the Popedom. 1880 ‘Ouida’ Moths III. 25 It is only the prison's maw that is never full. |
† c. Inmost recesses. Obs. (? nonce-use.)
| 1630 Lord Banians 81 Some of the Rajahs yeelded, others flying to retyrements impregnable, lay in the Mawe of the countrey [etc.]. |
2. Applied to other internal parts. † a. The abdominal cavity as a whole; the belly. Obs.
| 1297 R. Glouc. (Rolls) 6363 Here is þat knif al blodi þat ich broȝte him wiþ of dawe & smot in þoru þe foundement & so in to þe mawe. a 1300 Cursor M. 22394 All þe filthes of his maugh sal brist vte at his hindwin. 1482 Monk of Evesham (Arb.) 85 The maw and inwarde bowels of him yat sate in the sadelle were sore smyt thorow. |
† b. The womb. Obs.
| a 1300 E.E. Psalter cxxxviii. 13 Fra maghe ofe mi moder me keped þou. c 1325 Metr. Hom. 124 Quen sain Thomas was in hir maw. a 1340 Hampole Psalter lvii. 3 Aliend ere synful fra maghe [v.r. marice]. |
† c. The liver. Obs.
| 1382 Wyclif Exod. xxix. 13 The calle of the mawe. 14.. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 588/36 Jecur, the mawe. a 1400–50 Alexander 4508 Cupido has þe custodi & cure of þe mawe. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 330/1 Maw, jecur. c 1500 New Not-br. Mayd 216 in Hazl. E.P.P. III. 10 My herte and mawe To rent and drawe..Cheseth not he? |
† d. The honey-making apparatus of bees. Obs.
| 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iv. (1586) 180 b, Beeing sucked vp from the leaues by the Bees and digested in their mawes. 1609 C. Butler Fem. Mon. iv. (1623) H j, You shall neuer find his [the Bee's] maw without a good drop of the purest nectar. |
† e. The crop of a granivorous bird. Obs.
| 1658 Rowland Moufet's Theat. Ins. 1023 Hens feed on Earwigs:..I have found a great number of them in their Mawes. 1731 Arbuthnot Nat. Aliments (1735) 222 Their [sc. granivorous birds'] maw is the Happer which holds and softens the Grain, letting it drop by degrees into the Stomach. |
f. The ‘swim-bladder’ or sound of a fish.
| c 1430 Two Cookery-bks. 18 Take the Mawes of Turbut, Haddok, or Codeling. 1883 R. Haldane Workshop Receipts Ser. ii. 355 Isinglass or fish glue, in its raw state, is the ‘sound’, ‘maw’, or swimming bladder of various kinds of fish. |
3. The throat, gullet; now chiefly, the jaws or mouth (of a voracious mammal or fish). Also fig.
| 1530 Palsgr. 244/1 Mawe of a beest, jovsier. 1814 Cary Dante, Paradise iv. 4 A lamb between the maw Of two fierce wolves. 1818 Keats Endymion ii. 272 Weary, he sat down before the maw Of a wide outlet. 1843 Lytton Last Bar. i. vii, The philosopher's hand closed on them as the fish's maw closes on the bait. 1851 H. Melville Whale ix. 44, I saw the opening maw of hell. 1867 F. Francis Angling i. (1880) 1 Within reach of its voracious maw. 1873 G. C. Davies Mount. & Mere ii. 9 A little black ball has gone down the hungry maw of a pike. 1931 F. Hurst Back St. xxxi. 277 The small vestibule where stood a row of these iron men of chance. Occasionally one of the guests, feeding coins into these metal maws, staked her. 1955 Times 5 Aug. 9/7 The grim realities of economics are rapidly driving the stubbornly ‘independent’ man into the insatiable maw of large combines. |
† 4. Used (like stomach) for: Appetite, inclination, liking. Obs.
| 1598 B. Jonson Ev. Man in Hum. iii. iv. (1616) 38 O, I doe stomack them hugely! I haue a maw now, and't were for S{supr} Bevis his horse, against 'hem. 1602 Marston Antonio's Rev. iv. v, Have you no mawe to restitution? 1607 Middleton Fam. Love v. iii. 146 If you have any maw, feed here till you choke again. 1645 Milton Colast. Wks. 1851 IV. 365 Next the word Politician is not us'd to his maw, and therupon he plaies the most notorious hobbihors. 1668 R. L'Estrange Vis. Quev. (1708) 37, I have no great Maw to go home again. 1704 Cibber Careless Husb. v. (1705) 50, I have no great Maw to that Business, methinks. |
5. attrib. and Comb., as maw-bound a., constipated (Syd. Soc. Lex. 1890); also † n., a constipated disease in cattle; † maw-gut (see quot. 1607); † maw-mother, a mooncalf or ‘false conception’ (tumor ventris); † maw-skin, the stomach of a calf which has fed on nothing but milk.
| a 1722 Lisle Husb. (1752) 344 The distemper in cows called the *maw-bound..comes from a surfeit by being overheated by driving. 1848 Rural Cycl. II. 486 Grain-sick, or Maw-bound, a great and dangerous distension of the rumen of cattle. |
| 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 153 He hath his gall in his *maw-gut. Ibid. 509 The maw-gut differeth from all other, for it is Coecum, that is, as I take it without a passage out of it into any other part then the other guts [etc.]. |
| 1483 Cath. Angl. 232 *Mawmoder, molucrum. |
| 1784 Twamley Dairying 41 The *Maw-skin..is the Maw or Stomach of Calves. 1846 J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4) I. 205 The water thus impregnated with the maw⁓skin is passed through the sieve into the milk. |
▪ II. maw, n.2 Obs. exc. dial.
(mɔː)
Also 5–6 mawe, 9 (pl. const. as sing.) maas, mawse, maws.
[var. of mallow. Cf. maul n.]
= mallow.
| c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. i. viii. 433 Froyt & gyrs thai oysyd tyll ete As kers, or mawe, or wyolete. c 1450 Alphita (Anecd. Oxon.) 23 Malva ortolana vel domestica. g. mauue, ang. mawe. 1562 Turner Herbal ii. 45 The vertues of mallowe or mawes. 1568 G. Skeyne The Pest (1860) 40 Fomentit with the decoctioun of the rute of lilie, maw, althe, cammeile. 1696 in Analecta Scot. II. 13 Aduertes me, gif he hes the seid of al sort of mawes, purpie, and sorrelis. 1893 Northumbld. Gloss., Maas, Mawse. Ibid., Maws, the maws mallow or marshmallow. |
▪ III. maw, n.3 Obs. exc. dial.
(mɔː)
Also 6 mau, 7–8 mall.
[a. ON. má-r (dat. máve, máfe, pl. mávar) = OE. mǽw: see mew n.1]
A gull, esp. the Common gull, Larus canus.
| c 1450 Holland Howlat 179 The Se Mawis war monkis, the blak and the quhyte. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems xxxiii. 90 Thik was the clud of kayis and crawis, Of marleȝonis, mittanis, and of mawis. 1549 [see gull-maw s.v. gull n.1 c]. 1678 Ray Willughby's Ornithol. 345 The common Sea-Mall, Larus cinereus minor. 1698 M. Martin Voy. St. Kilda (1749) 28 The Fulmar, in Bigness equals the Malls of the second Rate. c 1825 Jolly Goshawk iii. in Child Ballads II. 360/1 The thing of my love's face is white It's that of dove or maw. 1852 Macgillivray Hist. Brit. Birds V. 593 Gavia ridibunda...[Syn.] Laughing Gull...Black-cap. Hooded Maw. |
▪ IV. maw, n.4 Obs. exc. Hist.
(mɔː)
Also 6 mall, 6–7 mawe.
[Of obscure origin.]
‘An old game at cards. It was played with a piquet pack of thirty-six cards, and any number of persons from two to six formed the party’ (Halliwell). a set at maw: a party or game at maw. to set a maw: ? to arrange a game. to heave at (the) maw: a technical phrase of the game, app. designating its characteristic feature. (Cf. Mayo.)
| 1548 Forrest Pleas. Poesye xix. 58 b, At ale howse too sitt at mack or at mall. 1575 Turberv. Faulconrie, In Commend. Hawk. 77 To checke at Chesse, to heaue at Maw, at Mack to passe the time. 1593 Rich in Greene's Newes fr. Heaven & Hell To Rdr., Although the knave of trumpes be the seconde carde at Mawe, yet the five-finger may commaunde both him and all the rest of the pack. 1594 Henslowe Diary (1845) 46 [Title of play] the mawe. Ibid. 47 note, The seat at mawe. a 1612 Harington Epigr. iv. xii. (1618) K 6 b, Then thirdly follow'd heaving of the Maw, A game without Ciuility or Law. 1624 Gataker Wife in Deed 62 Whom a pint of wine drunke together,..or a set at Maw maketh Friends. 1630 R. Brathwait Eng. Gentlem. (1641) 126 In games at cards the Maw requires a quicke conceit or present pregnancy. 1633 Ford Love's Sacr. iii. ii, My lord you were best to try to set a maw. 1864 Reader No. 105. 826/1 Primero yielded the ascendency to Maw. |
† b. a help at maw: app. a term of this game, but occurring only fig. a means of evasion, a resource.
| 1644–7 Cleveland Char. Lond. Diurn. 7 If any thing fall out amiss, which cannot be smothered, the Diurnall hath a help at Maw. 1660 R. Coke Justice Vind. 13 But it may be our Author has a help at Mawe; for our Author Ground 8. saies It is evident [etc.]. 1678 B. R. Let. Pop. Friends 4 A Dispensation..is always an Infallible Help at Maw, a sure Antidote against Perjury. |
▪ V. maw, n.5 dial. (chiefly U.S.).
(mɔː)
[Repr. regional pronunc.]
= ma n. a. Cf. paw n.4
| 1826 A. Royall Sk. Hist., Life, & Manners U.S. 121 Here too you have the ‘paw and maw’..and ‘tote’, with a long train of their kindred. a 1911 D. G. Phillips Susan Lenox (1917) I. ix. 154 You'll find some calikers that belonged to maw in a box under the bed in our room. 1925 E. O'Neill Desire under Elms iii. ii. 204 'Twas yer Maw's folks aimed t'steal my farm from me. 1942 G. Ade Let. 1 Feb. (1973) 228 The little red school-house is a thing of the past but don't forget that it turned out some of our best people, including possibly your paw and maw, and, certainly, your grandparents. 1962 M. Richler in R. Weaver Canad. Short Stories (1968) 2nd Ser. 177 She rushed up to Mervyn and kissed him. ‘Maw just told me.’ 1973 ‘J. Patrick’ Glasgow Gang Observed xii. 108 Benny was a target for their vilest abuse: ‘Yir maw does press-ups oan a carrot field.’ 1981 N.Y. Times Mag. 13 Dec. 16/3 Paw could whop the errant son with Maw out of earshot. 1991 J. Kelman Burn (1992) 150 She's been dead for fifteen years. Fifteen years. A long time without your maw, eh? |
▪ VI. † maw, v. Obs. rare—1.
[a. Du. mauwen.]
intr. Of a cat = mew v.
| 1481 Caxton Reynard (Arb.) 22 Tybert coude not goo awaye, but he mawede and galped so lowde that [etc.]. |
▪ VII. maw
see maugh, maul, mow.