• (UK)IPA^(key):/mɔː/
• (US)IPA^(key):/mɔ/
• (cot–caught merger)IPA^(key):/mɑ/
• Homophones:MAW,more (non-rhotic accents)
• Rhymes:-ɔː

• Audio(Southern England):

  (file)

FromMiddle Englishmawe,maghe,maȝe, fromOld Englishmaga(“stomach; maw”), fromProto-West Germanic*magō, fromProto-Germanic*magô(“belly; stomach”), fromProto-Indo-European*mak-,*maks-(“bag, bellows, belly”).

maw (pluralmaws)

1. (archaic) Thestomach, especially of an animal.
   • 1667,John Milton, “(please specify the page number)”, inParadise Lost. […], London:[…] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […];[a]nd by Robert Boulter […];[a]nd Matthias Walker, […],→OCLC; republished asParadise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […],1873,→OCLC:

     So Death shall be deceav'd his glut, and with us two / Be forc'd to satisfie his Rav'nousMaw.

2. The upperdigestive tract (where food enters the body), especially themouth andjaws of a fearsome andravenous creature; craw.
   • 1818,John Keats, “(please specify the page)”, inEndymion: A Poetic Romance, London:[…] T[homas] Miller, […] forTaylor and Hessey, […],→OCLC:

     To save poor lambkins from the eagle'smaw

   • 1851 November 14,Herman Melville, chapter 9, inMoby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.:Harper & Brothers; London:Richard Bentley,→OCLC:

     “I saw the openingmaw of hell, With endless pains and sorrows there; Which none but they that feel can tell— Oh, I was plunging to despair.

3. (slang,derogatory) Themouth.

   Synonyms:trap,yap

   Shut yourmaw!

   • 1920,Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “The Escape”, inBliss and Other Stories, London:Constable & Company, published1920,→OCLC,page273:

     She fumbled with her bag, and produced from its littlemaw a scented handkerchief.

4. Any large,insatiable orperilousopening.
   • 1981,William Irwin Thompson,The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page23:

     Adam requires a touch of feminine lace and a whisper of diaphanous silk, not a direct vision of the gapingmaw of the human vulva.

   • 2011 October 11, “Jumping Jack Flash (Live 1973)” (track 14), inBrussels Affair (Live 1973)‎^[1], performed byThe Rolling Stones:

     One two! I was born in a cross-fire hurricane. And I howled at themaw in the drivin' rain. But it's all right now, in fact, it's a gas. But it's all right. I'm Jumpin' Jack Flash. It's a gas, gas, gas.

5. Appetite; inclination.
   • 1607 (first performance),Francis Beaumont, “The Knight of the Burning Pestle”, inComedies and Tragedies […], London:[…]Humphrey Robinson, […], and forHumphrey Moseley […], published1679,→OCLC, Act I, scene i:

     Unless you had moremaw to do me good.

6. Theswim bladder of afish, especially when used as food inChinese cuisine.
   • 1998, Charles Gordon Sinclair,International Dictionary of Food and Cooking, Taylor & Francis,→ISBN, page203:

     fish maw: The buoyancy bladder of a fish similar in appearance to the mammalian lung. Themaw of the conger pike is used in Chinese cooking and is usually sold in dried form which needs reconstituting for about 3 hours and treating with […]

   • 2009 April 28, Teresa M. Chen,A Tradition of Soup: Flavors from China's Pearl River Delta, North Atlantic Books,→ISBN, page70:

     Fish maw is the commercial term for the dried swim bladders of large fish like sturgeon. Fishmaw has no fishy taste and absorbs the flavors of other ingredients.

   • 201008, Eddie Dowd,Traditional Chinese Medicine and Fertility Treatment, Paragon Publishing,→ISBN, page150:

     Fishmaw (swim bladder) is easily obtainable from your local fishmonger[.]

   • 2020 May 12, K. Gopakumar, Balagopal Gopakumar,Health Foods from Ocean Animals, CRC Press,→ISBN, page172:

     [...] fishmaw is light, white in color, and has a spongy texture. Dried fishmaw is tasteless which makes it a good complementary addition to many dishes since it can absorb the flavors of other ingredients when it is cooked with other food […]

By shortening ofmother

maw (pluralmaws)

1. (dialect,colloquial) Mother.

Seemew(“a gull”),Norwegianmåke(“a gull”)

maw (pluralmaws)

1. Agull.

• mee-maw

• MWA,WMA,awm,WAM,mwa

maw

1. butterfly

• IPA^(key):/mæʊ/

maw m (pluralmebyon)

1. boy

   Me a wrug deskyKernowak termyn me vemaw.

   I learnt Cornish when I was a boy.

• mab

• máw

FromProto-Khasian*smaːw, fromProto-Austroasiatic*t₂mɔʔ(“stone”). Cognate withVietnameseđá,Monတၟံ,Nyah Kurฮมอ,Khmerថ្ម(thmɑɑ),Eastern Brutamaw,Bahnartơmo,Parauksimaw.^[1]

• IPA^(key):/maːu/

maw m

1. rock,stone

• Singh, U Nissor (1906)Khasi-English dictionary‎^[2], Shillong: Eastern Bengal and Assam Secretariat Press, page130. Searchable online atSEAlang.net.

maw(Unified spelling)

1. rain

maw

1. Alternative form ofmawe(“stomach”)

FromProto-Cushitic*ma?-/*miʔ-(to be wet) fromProto-Afroasiatic*maʔ-. CompareEgyptianmw,Aasaxmaʔa, alsoDahalomaʔa;Hebrewמים(máyim),
Classical Syriacܡܝܐ(mayyā) andSomalimaanyo andSomalima'wi.

maw m (pluralmawooyinm)

1. watercontainer,water-jar

• Puglielli, Annarita, Mansuur, Cabdalla Cumar (2012) “ma'wi”, inQaamuuska Af-Soomaliga‎^[3], Rome:RomaTrE-Press,→ISBN, page613