Free TranslationFree Translation
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Mew   /mju/   Listen
Mew

verb
(past & past part. mewed; pres. part. mewing)  (Written also meaw, meow)
1.
Cry like a cat.  Synonym: meow.
2.
Utter a high-pitched cry, as of seagulls.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |





"Mew" Quotes from Famous Books



... corner. He crouched low; his eyes glowed. The Kitten wandered, sniffing, up to the bars, put its head in, sniffed again, then made toward the feed-pan, to be seized in a flash by the crouching Fox. It gave a frightened "mew," but a single shake cut that short and would have ended Kitty's nine lives at once, had not the negro come to the rescue. He had no weapon and could not get into the cage, but he spat with such copious vigor in the Fox's face that he dropped ...
— Animal Heroes • Ernest Thompson Seton

... young brave," cried the captain, slapping his favorite boy on the shoulder, "you are worth a dozen such girl-boys as your brother. Let him be a kitten and cry mew, if he will, while you climb the topgallant-mast and make ladders ...
— Ernest Linwood - or, The Inner Life of the Author • Caroline Lee Hentz

... waiting for Betsy to bring the lamp. Peter had built himself a comfortable den beneath the table and was having a quiet game of Bears with Mittens, the cat, for his cub—quiet, that is, except for an angry mew now and then from Mittens, who had not enjoyed an easy moment since the arrival of the three ...
— The Wonderful Bed • Gertrude Knevels

... ball, when relatives and friends assembled from far and wide, was the great entertainment given at Headlong Hall from time immemorial, and it was on the morning after the ball that Miss Brindle-Mew Tabitha Ap-Headlong, the squire's maiden aunt, took her nephew aside, and told him it was time he was married if the family was not ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol VII • Various

... the cat, as he sprang softly into the room; but the prince did not heed him. "Mew," again said the cat; but again the prince did not heed him. "Mew," said the cat the third time, and he jumped up on ...
— Irish Fairy Tales • Edmund Leamy

... ran; Says little Robin Redbreast, "Catch me if you can." Little Robin Redbreast jumped upon a wall, Pussy-cat jumped after him and almost got a fall; Little Robin chirped and sang, and what did Pussy say? Pussy-cat said "Mew," and Robin ...
— The National Nursery Book - With 120 illustrations • Unknown

... called la muda. It seems hardly necessary to refer the reader to Dante, Inferno, xxxiii. 1-90. This tower (now to be called the Tower of Hunger) was the mew of the eagles. For even as the Romans kept wolves on the Capitol, so the Pisans kept eagles, the Florentines lions, the Sienese a wolf. See Villani, bk. vii. 128. Heywood, Palio and Ponte, p. ...
— Florence and Northern Tuscany with Genoa • Edward Hutton

... he, that's he, that's he, that pennes and purges Humours and diseases.' He must promise 'not to brag in Bookebinders shops that your Vize-royes or Tributorie Kings have done homage to you, or paide Quarterage.' And—'when your Playes are misse-likt at Court, you shall not Crye Mew like a Pusse-Cat, and say you are glad you write out of the Courtiers ...
— Shakspere And Montaigne • Jacob Feis

... back-kitchen, where a gleam of fire, raked compactly together, enabled me to rekindle my candle. Nothing was stirring except a brindled, grey cat, which crept from the ashes, and saluted me with a querulous mew. ...
— Wuthering Heights • Emily Bronte

... temper the china puss, Glad of an opening for a fuss: "Dear Mr. Puppy, I can't recall That I ever heard you bark at all. Your bark is a wooden bark, 'tis true, But as to that," said the China Cat, "My mew ...
— A Jolly Jingle-Book • Various

... gin he had his ain way, He'd na let a cat on the Sabbath say "mew;" Nae birdie maun whistle, nae lambie maun play, An Phoebus himsel could na travel that day. As he'd find a new Joshua ...
— The Complete Poems of Sir Thomas Moore • Thomas Moore et al

... large hole or cave in the cliff. He could see to the further end of it from where he sat, but curiosity prompted him to step up to its mouth, and gave it a closer examination. On doing so, he heard a noise, not unlike the mew of a cat. It evidently came from the cave, and only increased his curiosity to look inside. He put his head to the entrance, and there, in a sort of nest, upon the bottom of the cave, he perceived two creatures, exactly like two spotted kittens, ...
— Popular Adventure Tales • Mayne Reid

... that our master looks coldly at you. Perhaps you don't know that in England a white cat is supposed to mew twenty times longer and to purr twenty times louder than a cat ...
— Pussy and Doggy Tales • Edith Nesbit

... sullen irritation, he followed the least movement of his enemy with superb tranquillity. The metallic sparkle of his eyes troubled Laurent, who hastened to open the dining-room door, and the cat fled with a shrill mew. ...
— Therese Raquin • Emile Zola

... would look at her with inquiring eyes and a soft, questioning sound in his voice that was not quite a mew. ...
— A Little Girl in Old Boston • Amanda Millie Douglas

... to Dulwich to hear what Sam Weller had to say; but the high-level railway went through Mr. Pickwick's parlour two months ago, and it is of no use writing to Sam, for, as you are well aware, he is no penman. And, indeed, Sir, little good will come of any writing on the matter. "The cat will mew, the dog will have its day." You yourself, excellent as is the greater part of what you have said, and to the point, speak but vainly when you talk of "probing the evil to the bottom." This is no sore that can be probed, no sword nor bullet wound. This is a plague spot. Small or great, it is ...
— A Letter Book - Selected with an Introduction on the History and Art of Letter-Writing • George Saintsbury

... with a naturalist's interest at their grimacing faces, in which he discerned traces of their occupations and appetites; he listened also to their inane chatter, just as he might have tried to catch the meaning of a cat's mew or a dog's bark. At this period he was occupied with comparative natural history, applying to the human race the observations which he had made upon animals with regard to the working of heredity. While he was in the yellow drawing-room, therefore, he amused ...
— The Fortune of the Rougons • Emile Zola

... come from one of you Out of some Connaught rath, and would lap up milk and mew; But if he so loved water I have ...
— The Green Helmet and Other Poems • William Butler Yeats

... worthy of being mentioned. The slightest ripple of the water, stirred by a zephyr breeze, as it played against the bodies of the languid swimmers, might have been heard, but was not heeded. No more did the scream of the sea-mew arrest the attention of any of them, or if it did, it was only to add to the awe which reigned above ...
— The Ocean Waifs - A Story of Adventure on Land and Sea • Mayne Reid

... he (Hermes) stooped. To Ocean, and the billows lightly skimmed In form a sea-mew, such as in the bays Tremendous of the barren deep her food Seeking, dips oft in brine her ample wing. In such disguise o'er many a wave he rode, But reaching, now, that isle remote, forsook The azure deep, and ...
— Cowper • Goldwin Smith

... as a canary, only a great deal better. "The greater included the less." He had as sweet a voice, and a vast deal more compass. His powers of mimicry were very amusing to poor little Prudy, who was never tired of hearing him mew like a kitten, quack like a duck, ...
— Little Prudy's Sister Susy • Sophie May

... in your eye— 'Tell you, I liked your looks at very first. Let's sit and set things straight now, hip to haunch. Here's spring come, and the nights one makes up bands 45 To roam the town and sing out carnival, And I've been three weeks shut within my mew, A-painting for the great man, saints and saints And saints again. I could not paint all night— Ouf! I leaned out of window for fresh air. 50 There came a hurry of feet and little feet, A sweep of lute-strings, laughs, and whifts of song— Flower o' the broom, Take away ...
— Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning • Robert Browning

... mounted the log and followed unerringly the Cat's back trail to the hole in the trunk. Down this she peered a minute, then, sniffing, walked in, till nothing could be seen but her tail. Now Yan heard loud, shrill mewing from the log, "Mew, mew, m-e-u-w, m-e-e-u-w," and the old Skunk came backing out, holding ...
— Two Little Savages • Ernest Thompson Seton

... in these abominable large towns? The carriages, the watchmen, the drums, the cats, the soldiers, never cease to rattle, to call, to roll, to mew, and to swear; just as if the last thing the night is intended for was for sleep. Have a ...
— Minna von Barnhelm • Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

... was the making of mechanical toys, at which work he had acquired an almost European reputation. He made rabbits that would emerge from the heart of a cabbage, flop their ears, smooth their whiskers, and disappear again; cats that would wash their faces, and mew so naturally that dogs would mistake them for real cats, and fly at them; dolls, with phonographs concealed within them, that would raise their hats and say, 'Good morning; how do you do,' and some that would ...
— The Idler Magazine, Volume III, March 1893 - An Illustrated Monthly • Various

... the young man at the window who came over on the plank, sitting on it and pulling himself along; they said he brought the kitten, as he had promised, having first choked the life out of it lest it should mew, and wake the house. They said that when they caught the robber, Willy and I would have to go and look at him and say, "That is the man." We used to lie shaking in our beds at night, dreading the hour when we should be called ...
— A Sheaf of Corn • Mary E. Mann

... bitterest irony, Epitomize fame's immortality, Perpetuating for all after days Mute lamentations and unnoted praise. And Gawayne, reading here and there the story Of fame obscure and unremembered glory, Found on a tablet these words: "Where he lies, The gray wave breaks and the wild sea-mew flies: If any be that loved him, seek not here, But in the lone hills by the Murmuring Mere." A nameless cenotaph!—perhaps of one Like Gawayne's self deluded and undone By the green stranger; and the legend brought A tide of passion flooding Gawayne's thought; ...
— Gawayne And The Green Knight - A Fairy Tale • Charlton Miner Lewis

... now with tears in his eyes. They gleamed at him like a promise straight from God. How freely they moved. Free as air; free as the sea-mew with its harsh cry wheeling close at hand ...
— Prisoners - Fast Bound In Misery And Iron • Mary Cholmondeley

... from the flood She mew'd to every watery god Some speedy aid to send: No dolphin came, no Nereid stirr'd, Nor cruel Tom nor Susan heard— A ...
— The Children's Garland from the Best Poets • Various

... th' sthreets in Rennes was packed with these dauntless souls, ar-rmed with death-dealin' kodaks, there was a commotion near th' coort-house. Was it a rivolution? Was this th' beginnin' iv another Saint Barth'mew's Day, whin th' degraded passions in Fr-rance, pent up durin' three hundherd years, 'd break forth again? Was it th' signal iv another div'lish outbreak that 'd show th' thrue nature iv th' Fr-rinch people, disgeezed behind a varnish iv ojoous politeness which our waiters ...
— Mr. Dooley: In the Hearts of His Countrymen • Finley Peter Dunne

... way to these ports, the spots are also very numerous, while on unfrequented parts they are found only here and there in little groups of two, three, or four. Away on the nor'-west shores of Scotland, for instance, where the seal and the sea-mew have the ocean and rugged cliffs pretty much to themselves, the plague-spots are few and far between; but on the east coast we find a fair sprinkling of them, especially in the mouths of the Forth and Tay, whither a goodly portion of the world's ...
— Battles with the Sea • R.M. Ballantyne

... freely among the people, puzzling their heads with what it is impossible they should understand, and by his sophistries alienating them from their venerable parent? Not so, by Hercules! I should ill deserve my office of supreme guardian of the honor and liberties of Rome, did I not mew him up in the Fabrician dungeons, or send him lower still to the ...
— Aurelian - or, Rome in the Third Century • William Ware

... him to her breasts, as only mothers know how to hug children, with a spiritual force that is felt only in their hearts. If you doubt this, watch a cat carrying her kittens in her mouth, not one of them gives a single mew. The youthful gallant, who had certain fears about watering this fair, unfertile plain, was reassured by this speech. He thought then that it would only be following the commandments of God to win this saint to love; and he thought right. At night Bertha asked her cousin—according ...
— Droll Stories, Complete - Collected From The Abbeys Of Touraine • Honore de Balzac

... Withoute bake-meat never was his house, Of fish and flesh, and that so plenteous, It snowed in his house of meat and drink, Of alle dainties that men coulde think. After the sundry seasons of the year, So changed he his meat and his soupere. Full many a fat partridge had he in mew*, *cage And many a bream, and many a luce* in stew** *pike **fish-pond Woe was his cook, *but if* his sauce were *unless* Poignant and sharp, and ready all his gear. His table dormant* in his hall alway *fixed Stood ready cover'd all the longe day. At sessions there ...
— The Canterbury Tales and Other Poems • Geoffrey Chaucer

... went on, for it was no business of his; only he could not help saying that in his country if the kitten could not get in at the same hole as the cat, she might stay outside and mew. ...
— Journeys Through Bookland V2 • Charles H. Sylvester

... sometimes, when I'm naughty, I climb upon the stand, And eat the cake and chicken, Or any thing at hand; Ah! then they hide my saucer, No matter if I mew; And that's the way I'm punished For naughty things ...
— The Nursery, May 1873, Vol. XIII. - A Monthly Magazine for Youngest People • Various

... only see. I have seen him laugh at our governor and the young ladies, when their heads were turned away, but I heard no sound. My mother had a sandy cat, which sometimes used to open its mouth wide with a mew which nobody could hear, and the silent laugh of that red-haired priest used to put me wonderfully in mind of the silent mew of my mother's sandy-red cat. And then the other laugh, which you could hear; ...
— Lavengro - The Scholar, The Gypsy, The Priest • George Borrow

... stingy woman. During her lifetime she used to get up at night and mew, so that the neighbours might think she kept a cat—she ...
— What the Moon Saw: and Other Tales • Hans Christian Andersen

... mew To sport my Muse and sing my loves sweet praise, The contemplation of whose heavenly hew My spirit to an ...
— A Biography of Edmund Spenser • John W. Hales

... western blast Aside the shroud of battle cast; And, first, the ridge of mingled spears Above the brightened cloud appears; And in the smoke the pennons flew, As in the storm the white sea-mew. Then marked they, dashing broad and far, The broken billows of the war, And plumed crests of chieftains brave Floating like foam upon the wave; But naught distinct they see: Wide raged the battle on the plain; Spears shook, and falchions flashed amain; Fell England's arrow-flight like ...
— The World's Best Poetry, Volume 8 • Various

... has come down, when I hear a loud "mew;" I open the door, and my kitten comes through; My white kitten! ah me! Can it really be she— This ill-looking, beggar-like cat ...
— McGuffey's Third Eclectic Reader • William Holmes McGuffey

... no need to send an angel from heaven in answer to this little one's prayer: the cat would do. Annie heard a scratch and a mew at the door. The rats made one ...
— Alec Forbes of Howglen • George MacDonald

... a brave Rascal, He would labour like a Thrasher: but alas What thing can ever last? he has been ill mew'd, And drawn too soon; I have seen ...
— Beaumont & Fletcher's Works (1 of 10) - The Custom of the Country • Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher

... music, my fine fellow. There—you—are," as Archie, with a final careful twist, drew off the can. Once out of its tin bondage, the little creature seemed too frightened to move, and suddenly curled down under the protecting table-cover, to restore its ruffled fur, with many a piteous mew. ...
— Cricket at the Seashore • Elizabeth Westyn Timlow

... becoming plain to the marauder herself. Her mewings grew louder and more frequent. A few more contortions brought the climber nearer his victim. A little judicious urging with the rake and she was within reach. The rake came down to me, and a long, wild mew announced that Jonathan ...
— More Jonathan Papers • Elisabeth Woodbridge

... part, and had learned the miauw, the mew, the hiss, the dash forward, the howl of rage, and the purr to perfection. She had stalked across the stage again and again that day as kitchen cat, each time evoking shrieks of laughter. By her side walked a timorous dog, who looked at the kitchen cat with awe. The dog was purposely ...
— Hollyhock - A Spirit of Mischief • L. T. Meade

... on his black paws, and refused to take any notice of anything or anybody. In vain we stroked and entreated and brought him tidbits. Only when the Story Girl caressed him did he give one plaintive little mew, as if to ask piteously why she could not do something for him. At that Cecily and Felicity and Sara Ray all began crying, and we boys felt choky. Indeed, I caught Peter behind Aunt Olivia's dairy later in the ...
— The Story Girl • Lucy Maud Montgomery

... Graeme was a youth about seventeen years of age, he chanced one summer morning to descend to the mew in which Sir Halbert Glendinning kept his hawks, in order to superintend the training of an eyas, or young hawk, which he himself, at the imminent risk of neck and limbs, had taken from the celebrated eyry ...
— The Abbot • Sir Walter Scott

... lines which I send, a reproach, From my Muse in a car, to your Muse in a coach. The great god of poems delights in a car, Which makes him so bright that we see him from far; For, were he mew'd up in a coach, 'tis allow'd We'd see him no more than we see through a cloud. You know to apply this—I do not disparage Your lines, but I say they're the worse for the carriage. Now first you deny that a woman's a sieve; I say that she is: ...
— Poems (Volume II.) • Jonathan Swift

... chuckle, a man's "Whew!" of surprise, the "Hem!" of annoyance or perplexity, the moan of pain, a scream, a whisper, a rasp, a sob, a choke, and a gasp. The utterances of animals, though wordless, are eloquent to me—the cat's purr, its mew, its angry, jerky, scolding spit; the dog's bow-wow of warning or of joyous welcome, its yelp of despair, and its contented snore; the cow's moo; a monkey's chatter; the snort of a horse; the lion's ...
— The World I Live In • Helen Keller

... in the bundle, but what it was they could not guess. Taro thought, "Maybe it's a puppy." He had wanted a puppy for a long time. And Take thought, "Perhaps it's a kitten! But it looks pretty large for a kitten, and it doesn't mew. Kittens always mew." And they both thought, ...
— THE JAPANESE TWINS • Lucy Fitch Perkins

... Joan, And she sat in a chair, When in came his cat, That had got but one ear. Says Joan "I've come home, Puss, Pray how do you do?" The cat wagg'd her tail And said nothing but "mew." ...
— Cole's Funny Picture Book No. 1 • Edward William Cole

... have your saddle stuffed softer," said the lord. "I tell you that you shall mew your city slough, and change from the caterpillar of a paltry lane into the butterfly of a prince's garden. You shall have as many tires as there are hours in the day—as many handmaidens as there are days ...
— The Fortunes of Nigel • Sir Walter Scott

... the vessels it was growing dark. Just as everything had been got into the sleigh, and we were about to leave, we were startled by a shrill scream on one side, something like that made by a pair of quarrelsome tom-cats, only much louder, which was answered immediately by a prolonged mew on the other. The noise was so startling and unexpected that John for a moment was paralyzed. Old Ring, a large powerful dog, bounded away at once into the woods, and Buck and Bright started for home on the trot. I was too sick to care much about wild cats, or in fact anything else, and lay on ...
— Life in Canada Fifty Years Ago • Canniff Haight

... sea-mew pipes, or dives In yonder greening gleam, and fly The happy birds, that change their sky To build and ...
— Birds and Poets • John Burroughs

... for he came back and gave himself up the day after he had at first fled. He was already pre-judged; for so violent was the feeling against the Papists that my Lord Lucas said in the House of Lords that if he could have his way, he "would not have even a Popish cat to mew and purr about the King." Coleman, I say, was the first of those who had before been accused; but a Mr. Stayley, a Catholic banker (who had his house not far from me in Covent Garden), was even before him judged and executed, on account of some words ...
— Oddsfish! • Robert Hugh Benson

... several, and the best of their country, as they seemed to esteem them, by their praising and admiring them: but, Lord! the strangest ayre that ever I heard in my life, and all of one cast. But strange to hear my Lord Lauderdale say himself that he had rather hear a cat mew, than the best musique in the world; and the better the musique, the more sicke it makes him; and that of all instruments, he hates the lute most, and next to that, the baggpipe. Thence back with my Lord to his house, ...
— Diary of Samuel Pepys, Complete • Samuel Pepys

... are you, O Lady of all my time, Veering unbid into my view Whether I near Death's mew, Or Life's ...
— Late Lyrics and Earlier • Thomas Hardy

... to abjure Forever the society of men. Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires. Know of your youth, examine well your blood, Whether, if you yield not to your father's choice, You can endure the livery of a nun, For aye to be in shady cloister mew'd, To live a barren sister all your life, Chanting faint hymns to the cold, fruitless moon, Thrice blessed they that master so their blood, To undergo such maiden pilgrimage; But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd Than that which withering on ...
— Shakespeare's Christmas Gift to Queen Bess • Anna Benneson McMahan

... from the flood She mew'd to ev'ry wat'ry god Some speedy aid to send. No Dolphin came, no Nereid stirr'd, Nor cruel Tom, nor Susan heard. ...
— Old Valentines - A Love Story • Munson Aldrich Havens

... him, and o'er th' illimitable earth, Then took his rod with which, at will, all eyes He closes soft, or opes them wide again. So arm'd, forth flew the valiant Argicide. Alighting on Pieria, down he stoop'd To Ocean, and the billows lightly skimm'd 60 In form a sew-mew, such as in the bays Tremendous of the barren Deep her food Seeking, dips oft in brine her ample wing. In such disguise o'er many a wave he rode, But reaching, now, that isle remote, forsook The azure Deep, and at the spacious grot, ...
— The Odyssey of Homer • Homer

... came Puss, with a cautious pat To feel the pulse of the quivering Bat, That had not, under her tender paw, A limb to move, nor a breath to draw! Then she called her kit for a mother's gift, And stilled its mew with the racy lift. ...
— The Youth's Coronal • Hannah Flagg Gould

... just the intangible influences of bygone days. But there is something of enchantment about the tower, especially when it is contemplated from the water. And to fully appreciate the whole, one should slip out of the harbour past the Mew Stone, where the sea-gulls rise like a drift of snowflakes on a sudden gust, into the midst of sliding walls of transparent green water beyond, where—if there is wind enough—glassy hillocks all round, at moments, hide everything else from sight. Besides the fascination ...
— Devon, Its Moorlands, Streams and Coasts • Rosalind Northcote

... I but a Viking wild, And though she blushed and smiled, I was discarded! Should not the dove so white Follow the sea-mew's flight, Why did they leave ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

... of one so worthy the esteem of his co-dogs, ay, and co-cats too; for in spite of the differences which have so often raised up a barrier between the members of his race and ours, not even the noblest among us could be degraded by raising a "mew" to the honour of such a ...
— The Adventures of a Dog, and a Good Dog Too • Alfred Elwes

... was a Prince's child, I but a Viking wild, And though she blushed and smiled, I was discarded! Should not the dove so white Follow the sea-mew's flight? Why did they leave that ...
— Poems Every Child Should Know - The What-Every-Child-Should-Know-Library • Various

... The Short-billed or American Mew Gull is seventeen inches in length, has a short, stout bill and is otherwise similar to the preceding species. Nests on islands in the lakes and along the river banks of Alaska. The nest is made of grass, weeds and moss and is placed on ...
— The Bird Book • Chester A. Reed

... the wild sea-mew flocks and flees, And neither winds nor skies beguile, Foam-set amid the Irish seas Is rugged Skellig ...
— Sprays of Shamrock • Clinton Scollard

... we should have heard on't at both Ears, and have been mew'd up this Afternoon; which I would not for the World should have happen'd— Hey ho! I'm ...
— The Works of Aphra Behn, Vol. I (of 6) • Aphra Behn

... its body neatly and was calmly licking its sides with a long forked tongue. After a moment it halted the operation long enough to rub its jaw against a bar of its cage, and gave vent to a sociable mew! ...
— Astounding Stories of Super-Science, March 1930 • Various

... "this Sumner, this false thief, Had scouts in plenty ready to his hand, Like any hawks, the sharpest in the land, Watching their birds to pluck, each in his mew, Who told him all the secrets that they knew, And lured him game, and gat him wondrous profit; Exceeding little knew his master of it. Sirs, he would go, without a writ, and take Poor wretches up, feigning it for Christ's sake, And threatening ...
— Playful Poems • Henry Morley

... laborers," I interrupted hotly, "are about as fit to build up a mew world as they are to build a Brooklyn Bridge! When I compare them to Eleanore's father and his way of going to work"—I broke off in exasperation. "Can't you see you're all just floundering in ...
— The Harbor • Ernest Poole

... convincing me that I had not been mistaken, he instantly repeated his effort; and after doing so two or three times, he poured out his regular song in his sweet, ringing voice, and followed it by a whispered "mew," almost exactly in ...
— Little Brothers of the Air • Olive Thorne Miller

... seen undress'd: 560 He took her naked all alone, Before one rag of form was on. The Chaos too he had descry'd, And seen quite thro', or else he ly'd: Not that of paste-board which men shew 565 For groats, at fair of Barthol'mew; But its great grandsire, first o' the name, Whence that and REFORMATION came; Both cousin-germans, and right able T' inveigle and draw in the rabble. 570 But Reformation was, some say, O' th' younger house to Puppet-play. He cou'd ...
— Hudibras • Samuel Butler

... prancing, to her stall, White Face walked demurely off with a bellow, which Spotty, the calf, running at her heels, tried to imitate; the little lamb skipped bleating away; Piggywig walked off with a grunt; Pussy jumped on the fence with a mew; the squirrel still sat up in the tree cracking her nuts; Bunny hopped to her snug little quarters; while Rover, barking loudly, chased the chickens back to their coop. Such a hubbub of noises! Mamma said it sounded as if they were trying to say "Merry Christmas to you, Johnny! ...
— The Children's Book of Christmas Stories • Various

... the precise diminutive band, to the hectoring cravat and cuffs in folio; a nursery for training up the smaller fry of virtuosi in confident tattling, or a cabal of kittling critics that have only learned to spit and mew; a mint of intelligence, that, to make each man his penny-worth, draws out into petty parcels what the merchant receives in bullion. He, that comes often, saves two-pence a week in Gazettes, and has his news and his coffee for the same charge, as at a three-penny ordinary they give ...
— Inns and Taverns of Old London • Henry C. Shelley

... aroused by observing that within the bag went on a persistent wriggling; and his interest was quickened into characteristic action when he heard from its interior, faintly but quite distinctly, a very pitiful half-strangled little mew! ...
— Lords of the Housetops - Thirteen Cat Tales • Various

... Pussy-Cat, And down went he; Down came Pussy-Cat, Away Robin ran, Says little Robin Redbreast— Catch me if you can. Little Robin Redbreast jumped upon a spade, Pussy-Cat jumped after him, and then he was afraid. Little Robin chirped and sung, and what did pussy say? Pussy-Cat said Mew, mew mew,—and Robin ...
— The Only True Mother Goose Melodies - Without Addition or Abridgement • Munroe and Francis

... comes in the morning, and jumps up on the children's bed. Then she creeps towards them, and rubs her soft fur on the little boy's face, and wakes him up. She would like to say, "Good morning!" but she only says, "Mew, mew!" ...
— The Nursery, January 1877, Volume XXI, No. 1 - A Monthly Magazine for Youngest Readers • Various

... the flood, She mew'd to every watery God, Some speedy aid to send. No Dolphin came, no Nereid stirr'd: Nor cruel Tom, nor Susan heard. 35 ...
— Select Poems of Thomas Gray • Thomas Gray

... bed, and has never got up since, poor dear gentleman! I went round to fetch a doctor out of Essex Street, finding as he was no better in the evening, and awful hot, and still more wandering-like—Mr. Mew by name, a very nice gentleman—which said as it were rheumatic fever, and has been here ...
— Fenton's Quest • M. E. Braddon

... to a condition that would have been Sarah's daily distraction, if she had not reconciled herself to it by observing, 'it did her heart good to see the Colonel take to the children, though he was no more to be trusted with them than a sea-mew; and if it was not for Master John, she believed they would all come ...
— Heartsease - or Brother's Wife • Charlotte M. Yonge

... attend a political convention. Now do I know how Robert Purvis feels when these 'white mules' turn round their long left ears at him. But let the Democrats and Liberals do what they may, the cat will mew, the dog will have his day. Dear friend, you ask me what I see. I am under a cloud ...
— The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2) • Ida Husted Harper

... cat it was. It had a strange way of knowing, when people were talking, whether what they said was right or wrong. If people said what they ought not to say, wee Widow Wiggins' wonderful cat would mew. Perhaps the cat had lived so long with the wee, wiry, weird widow woman, who was one of the best in the world, that it had gotten her dislike to things that were wrong. But the wee widow's neighbors were afraid of that cat. When Mrs. Vine, a very vile, vinegar-tongued, ...
— Queer Stories for Boys and Girls • Edward Eggleston

... commented Mrs. Applegate from the porch. But Charley-Joe, with an almost hypnotic fixity in his yellow eyes, and who during the last few minutes had several times opened his mouth wide in an ineffectual attempt to mew, suddenly found his voice with a prolonged and ...
— A Man's Woman • Frank Norris

... been Deborah. The house where Deborah was born and bred is situated in the country, and there is a door with a small porch opening on a flower-garden. Very often when this door was shut, Deborah, or little Deb, as she may have been called, was left outside; and on such occasions she used to mew as loudly as she could to beg for admittance. Occasionally she was not heard; but instead of running away, and trying to find some other home, she used—wise little creature that she was!—patiently ...
— Stories of Animal Sagacity • W.H.G. Kingston

... themselves (for a bird is all soul;) and of consequence has as much feeling as the human creature! when at the same time, if an honest fellow, by the gentlest persuasion, and the softest arts, has the good luck to prevail upon a mew'd-up lady, to countenance her own escape, and she consents to break cage, and be set a flying into the all-cheering air of liberty, mercy on us! what an outcry is ...
— Clarissa, Volume 4 (of 9) - History Of A Young Lady • Samuel Richardson

... hence—the date I have named in my will for their publication—someone may think them not so uninteresting. But all this toasting and buttering and grilling and frying your friends, and serving them up hot for all the old cats at a tea-table to mew over—Pah!" ...
— Miss Mapp • Edward Frederic Benson

... of utter weariness she shut the book and leaned back in her chair with a still, white, hopeless face. Presently Friskarina sprung up on her knee with a little sympathetic mew; she had been too miserable as yet to notice even her favorite cat very much, now a scarcely perceptible shade of relief came to her sadness, she stroked the soft gray head. But scarcely had she spoken to her favorite, when the cat suddenly turned away, ...
— We Two • Edna Lyall

... The foam-white mew, the green-black scart, The famishing hawk, the wailing tern, All birds from the sand-building mart ...
— Christmas in Legend and Story - A Book for Boys and Girls • Elva S. Smith

... expression in her eyes which seemed to say, "Please don't bother me now for this is my busy time," I brought three little kittens from their basket in the wood-shed and put them under her. The kittens felt the warmth of her body and began to mew and stir about. I shall never forget the look of astonishment in the little hen as she slowly rose in her nest and peered beneath her body at the kittens. She looked at me as if to say that she really couldn't be bothered ...
— The Light in the Clearing • Irving Bacheller

... family down there, and they will come swarming up and be as disagreeable as my own sisters and brothers. And how exceedingly mean of her not to give notice that she was coming. I should have heard the faintest mew, for everything is so quiet here. It is evident that her intentions are hostile, or she would not steal up like a thief. But I will certainly not ...
— Little Folks (July 1884) - A Magazine for the Young • Various

... buildings where the hawks were kept when moulting, the word "mew" being a term used by falconers to signify to moult, or cast feathers; and the King's Mews, near Charing Cross, was the place where the royal hawks were kept. This place was afterwards enlarged, and converted into stables for horses; but the old ...
— Old English Sports • Peter Hampson Ditchfield

... long for meadows green, And woods, where shadowy violets Nod their cool leaves between; I long to see the ploughman stride His darkening acres o'er, To hear the hoarse sea-waters drive Their billows 'gainst the shore; I long to watch the sea-mew wheel Back to her rock-perched mate; Or, where the breathing cows are housed, Lean dreaming o'er the gate. Something has gone, and ink and print Will never bring it back; I long for the green fields again, I'm tired ...
— Peacock Pie, A Book of Rhymes • Walter de la Mare

... centre of the quadrangle—"the tree planted by the water side," &c. The Bishop then robed and proceeded to chapel, and the Primate led the little service in which he spoke the words of installation, and the mew Bishop took the oath of allegiance to him. The Veni Creator was sung, and the Primate's blessing-given. The island boys looked on from one transept, the "Iris" sailors from another, and Charlie stood beside me. I am afraid his chief ...
— Life of John Coleridge Patteson • Charlotte M. Yonge

... A faint mew sounded from within. She turned the knob, and found the door unlocked. "Peter," she called again, and the big cat came forth, his tail waving like ...
— Glory of Youth • Temple Bailey

... by brave maidens, each tea-chest canoe, And spread out your large Canton crapes to the air; The kettle sings muster-call—hark! the cats mew! "Young Hyson"'s the word, the "delight ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Volume 19, No. 528, Saturday, January 7, 1832 • Various

... obscurity! and the best society whom the King introduced to us, was a Bohemian vagabond, by whose agency he directed us to correspond with our friends in Flanders.—Perhaps," said the lady, "it is his politic intention to mew us up here until our lives' end, that he may seize on our estates, after the extinction of the ancient house of Croye. The Duke of Burgundy was not so cruel; he offered my niece a husband, though he was ...
— Quentin Durward • Sir Walter Scott

... terrible noise. But Hungry was in there. She could not go without Hungry. She went in, and called in a faint whisper. The kitten knew her, dark as it was, and ran out from the wood-pile with a joyful mew, to ...
— The Junior Classics • Various

... thank you for this kindnesse, 260 if I thought these perfum'd musk-cats (being out of this priviledge) durst but once mew at us. ...
— Bussy D'Ambois and The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois • George Chapman

... standing on a red blanket, leaning against the right portal of the hut, talking and laughing, handkerchief in hand, to a hundred or more of his admiring wives, who, all squatting on the ground outside, in two groups, were dressed in mew mbugus. My men dared not advance upright, nor look upon the women, but, stooping, with lowered heads and averted eyes, came cringing after me. Unconscious myself, I gave loud and impatient orders to my guard, rebuking ...
— The Discovery of the Source of the Nile • John Hanning Speke

... like you, you ugly old cat," she said, "and you know I don't. And I shan't like her. You needn't make faces at me," as Manchon, disturbed in his afternoon nap, blinked again and gave a sort of discontented mew. "I don't care for your faces, and I don't care what mamma says, and I don't care for all the peoples in the world, I won't like her;" and then, without considering that there was no one near to see or to hear except Manchon, ...
— Rosy • Mrs. Molesworth

... say that you surprised and pleased me at the same time by your praise of my 'Sea-mew.'[23] Love to Annie. We were glad to hear that she did not continue unwell, and that you are well again, too. I hope you have had no return of ...
— The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1 of 2) • Frederic G. Kenyon

... magistrate, and again ascended tower and battlement to watch for the coming fleet. From the ramparts they hurled renewed defiance at the enemy. "Ye call us rat-eaters and dog-eaters," they cried, "and it is true. So long, then, as ye hear dog bark or cat mew within the walls, ye may know that the city holds out. And when all has perished but ourselves, be sure that we will each devour our left arms, retaining our right to defend our women, our liberty, and our religion, against the foreign tyrant. Should God, in his ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley

... cat evidently thinks it is her kitten. Hark! Hear her mew! 'Mine, mine, mine,' she seems ...
— The Nursery, May 1873, Vol. XIII. - A Monthly Magazine for Youngest People • Various

... was thy appeal, No hammer could reach those hearts of steel, And in this world, so full of strife, A plaintive mew won't save ...
— Little Folks (November 1884) - A Magazine for the Young • Various

... Disposal in the World. If all should be put into one Way of Life, or brought up to one Business. Or if in the Choice of Employment for Them, their several Biass and Capacity be not consulted, but the roving Genius mew'd up in a Closet, and confounded among Books: And the studious and thoughtful Genius sent to wander about the World, and be perfectly scattered and dissipated, for want of proper Application and closer Confinement. Whereas, one such a Family wisely educated, and dispos'd in the World, ...
— 'Of Genius', in The Occasional Paper, and Preface to The Creation • Aaron Hill

... the dark depth shot, sped straight into sight of the sun; And sheer through the snow-soft water, more dark than the roof of the pines above, Strikes forth, and is glad as a bird whose flight is impelled and sustained of love. As a sea-mew's love of the sea-wind breasted and ridden for rapture's sake Is the love of his body and soul for the darkling delight of the soundless lake: As the silent speed of a dream too living to live for a thought's space more Is the flight of his limbs through the ...
— A Channel Passage and Other Poems - Taken from The Collected Poetical Works of Algernon Charles - Swinburne—Vol VI • Algernon Charles Swinburne

... the Dart is the valley of the Plym, also flowing out of Dartmoor. Two streams known as the Cad and the Mew join to form this river, and though they are of about equal importance, the source of the Cad is generally regarded as the true Plym head, while a crossing upon it is known as the Plym Steps. Both are rocky, dashing mountain-streams, and such are also ...
— England, Picturesque and Descriptive - A Reminiscence of Foreign Travel • Joel Cook

... up to Lover's Seat; it is as fine in that neighbourhood as Juan Fernandez, as lonely too, when the Fishing boats are not out; I have sat for hours, staring upon the shipless sea. The salt sea is never so grand as when it is left to itself. One cock-boat spoils it. A sea mew or two improves it. And go to the little church, which is a very protestant Loretto, and seems dropt by some angel for the use of a hermit, who was at once parishioner and a whole parish. It is not too ...
— Highways & Byways in Sussex • E.V. Lucas

... mew, gurgle, groan, agonize, quiver, quaver, just as much as you please, Madam,—I have my foot on the fortissimo pedal, and thunder myself deaf! O Satan, Satan! which of thy goblins damned has got into this throat, pinching, and kicking, and ...
— Hyperion • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

... note of the whippoorwill, the nocturnal songster that mourns unseen. It was succeeded by the sharp tones of a saw-whet and the distinct mew of a cat-bird. A wild pigeon began to coo softly in another direction and was answered by a thrush. The listener vaguely realized that all this unexpected melody came from the Indians, who had by this time surrounded the house and who took this method of communicating ...
— The Strollers • Frederic S. Isham



Words linked to "Mew" :   Larus, seagull, meow, emit, gull, utter, let out, cry, miaou, let loose, miaul, sea gull, Larus canus, genus Larus



Copyright © 2024 e-Free Translation.com