Noun

maw (countable and uncountable, plural maws)Category:English lemmas#MAWCategory:English nouns#MAWCategory:English uncountable nouns#MAWCategory:English countable nouns#MAWCategory:English countable nouns#MAWCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#MAWCategory:Pages with entries#MAWCategory:Pages with 8 entries#MAW

1. (archaicCategory:English terms with archaic senses#MAW) The stomach, especially of an animal.
   • 1667, John Milton, “(please specify the page number)”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise 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'nous Maw.

     Category:English terms with quotations#MAW

2. The upper digestive tract (where food enters the body), especially the mouth and jaws of a fearsome and ravenous creature; craw.
   • 1818, John Keats, “(please specify the page)”, in Endymion: A Poetic Romance, London: […] T[homas] Miller, […] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC:

     To save poor lambkins from the eagle's maw

     Category:English terms with quotations#MAW

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

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

     Category:English terms with quotations#MAW

3. (slangCategory:English slang#MAW, derogatoryCategory:English derogatory terms#MAW) The mouth.

   Synonyms: trap, yap

   Shut your maw!Category:English terms with usage examples#MAW

   • 1920, Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “The Escape”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, →OCLC, page 273:

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

     Category:English terms with quotations#MAW

4. Any large, insatiable or perilous opening.
   • 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 23:

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

     Category:English terms with quotations#MAW

   • 2011 October 11, “Jumping Jack Flash (Live 1973)” (track 14), in Brussels Affair (Live 1973)‎, performed by The Rolling Stones:

     One two! I was born in a cross-fire hurricane. And I howled at the maw 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.

     Category:English terms with quotations#MAW

5. (obsoleteCategory:English terms with obsolete senses#MAW, uncountableCategory:English uncountable nouns#MAW) Appetite; inclination.
   • 1607 (first performance), Francis Beaumont, “The Knight of the Burning Pestle”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1679, →OCLC, Act I, scene i:

     Unless you had more maw to do me good.

     Category:English terms with quotations#MAW

6. The swim bladder of a fish, especially when used as food in Chinese cuisine.
   • 1998, Charles Gordon Sinclair, International Dictionary of Food and Cooking, Taylor & Francis, →ISBN, page 203:

     fish maw: The buoyancy bladder of a fish similar in appearance to the mammalian lung. The maw 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 […]

     Category:English terms with quotations#MAW

   • 2009 April 28, Teresa M. Chen, A Tradition of Soup: Flavors from China's Pearl River Delta, North Atlantic Books, →ISBN, page 70:

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

     Category:English terms with quotations#MAW

   • 2010 08, Eddie Dowd, Traditional Chinese Medicine and Fertility Treatment, Paragon Publishing, →ISBN, page 150:

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

     Category:English terms with quotations#MAW

   • 2020 May 12, K. Gopakumar, Balagopal Gopakumar, Health Foods from Ocean Animals, CRC Press, →ISBN, page 172:

     [...] fish maw is light, white in color, and has a spongy texture. Dried fish maw 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 […]

     Category:English terms with quotations#MAW

Noun

maw (plural maws)Category:English lemmas#MAWCategory:English nouns#MAWCategory:English countable nouns#MAWCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#MAWCategory:Pages with entries#MAWCategory:Pages with 8 entries#MAW

1. (dialectCategory:English dialectal terms#MAW, colloquialCategory:English colloquialisms#MAW) Mother.

Noun

maw (plural maws)Category:English lemmas#MAWCategory:English nouns#MAWCategory:English countable nouns#MAWCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#MAWCategory:Pages with entries#MAWCategory:Pages with 8 entries#MAW

1. A gull.

Derived terms

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