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Mew   Listen
verb
Mew  v. t.  (past & past part. mewed; pres. part. mewing)  To shed or cast; to change; to molt; as, the hawk mewed his feathers. "Nine times the moon had mewed her horns."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Mew" Quotes from Famous Books



... answered. "I think with white-wash. At any rate, they gave them a good careening. But since then these solitudes are only the home of the sea-gull, the sea-mew, and ...
— Winsome Winnie and other New Nonsense Novels • Stephen Leacock

... 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,' ...
— Two Little Travellers - A Story for Girls • Frances Browne Arthur

... 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?' Give me some more sherry. Of course you must come. No use being shy—a pretty creatur' like you! And you said you liked the play," he added ...
— The Awakening of Helena Richie • Margaret Deland

... as the wings of a sea-mew in the rush of startled flight, Cool as the touch of clover, shy as the dews of night, Strong as the love of freedom, sudden as panic fear, The restless gypsy longing wakes at the ...
— Masters of the Guild • L. Lamprey

... the work was ended, They thought the cat near dead, She gave a paw, and then a mew, And ...
— Cavalier Songs and Ballads of England from 1642 to 1684 • Charles Mackay

... knock, and Carlo began to bark, and Minnie began to mew, and Bunny began to squeak, and Jenny began to chip, and Ninny began to gabble; but for all the knocking, and barking, and mewing, and squeaking, and chipping, and gabbling, nobody came to the door; and poor little Jack began ...
— Baby Nightcaps • Frances Elizabeth Barrow

... Erastus is the prince of our cats to-day. He weighs seventeen pounds, and is a soft, grayish-maltese with white paws and breast. One Saturday night ten years ago, as we were partaking of our regular Boston baked beans, I heard a faint mew. Looking down I saw beside me the thinnest kitten I ever beheld. The Irish girl who presided over our fortunes at the time used to place the palms of her hands together and say of Thomas's appearance, "Why, mum, the ...
— Concerning Cats - My Own and Some Others • Helen M. Winslow

... Lizzie. We had a cat, and the cat had had kittens a day or two before. Aunt Lizzie came into the nursery, where Una and I were building houses of blocks, and sat down in the big easy-chair. The cat was in the room, and she immediately came up to my aunt and began to mew and to pluck at her dress with her claws. Such attentions were rare on pussy's part, and my aunt noticed them with pleasure, and caressed the animal, which still continued to devote its entire attention ...
— Hawthorne and His Circle • Julian Hawthorne

... disposition, know their own strength; unless they be otherwise wanting unto themselves. As for mercenary forces (which is the help in this case), all examples show, that whatsoever estate or prince doth rest upon them, he may spread his feathers for a time, but he will mew them ...
— Essays - The Essays Or Counsels, Civil And Moral, Of Francis Ld. - Verulam Viscount St. Albans • Francis Bacon

... that with Grainger, the translator of Tibullus. Grainger replied in a pamphlet; and in the next number of the Review we find him threatened with "castigation", as an "owl that has broken from his mew"! ...
— Henry Esmond; The English Humourists; The Four Georges • William Makepeace Thackeray

... coat-tails. Suddenly he bent forward across the table until his nose almost touched mine. The pupils of his eyes expanded, the iris assuming a beautiful, changing, golden-green tinge, and his coat-tails switched violently. Then he began to mew. ...
— In Search of the Unknown • Robert W. Chambers

... times emerging 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 Golden Treasury - Of the Best Songs and Lyrical Poems in the English Language • Various

... vitality a kitten has. It is really something very beautiful the way life bubbles over in the little creatures. They rush about, and mew, and spring; dance on their hind legs, embrace everything with their front ones, roll over and over, lie on their backs and kick. They don't know what to do with themselves, they are ...
— Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow • Jerome K. Jerome

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

... blast Aside the shroud of battle cast; And, first, the ridge of mingled spears Above the brightening 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 nought distinct they see: Wide raged the battle on the plain; Spears shook, and falchions flashed amain; Fell England's arrow-flight ...
— Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field • Walter Scott

... attempted to find the chat's nest, the bird himself accompanied me up and down the borders of this well-fortified blackberry thicket, mocking at me, and uttering his characteristic call, a sort of mew, different from that of the catbird or the cat, at the same time carefully keeping his precious body entirely screened by the foliage. Well he knew that no clumsy, garmented human creature however inquisitive, ...
— Upon The Tree-Tops • Olive Thorne Miller

... and Kalla? I did so want to speak to them! Haven't you? Do you know how I got out? I was only going to get the cat in for the night. I chased it out myself, and hid it so nicely under the wooden tub out in the shed. If only it doesn't mew." ...
— One of Life's Slaves • Jonas Lauritz Idemil Lie

... brought home his 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

... 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 ...
— 'Of Genius', in The Occasional Paper, and Preface to The Creation • Aaron Hill

... 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

... good few times," said Stephen, laughing, "and it never did aught worse to me than rub itself against me and mew. Why, surely, man! you're not ...
— One Snowy Night - Long ago at Oxford • Emily Sarah Holt

... sir? Women are mostly proud, and like their menkind to have clean hands; and I'll say it, too!' And here Mr. O'Brien thumped the arm of his chair so emphatically, that Sam woke and uttered a reproachful mew. ...
— Lover or Friend • Rosa Nouchette Carey

... inconvenient habit of kittens (Alice had once made the remark) that, whatever you say to them, they ALWAYS purr. 'If they would only purr for "yes" and mew for "no," or any rule of that sort,' she had said, 'so that one could keep up a conversation! But how CAN you talk with a person if they always ...
— Through the Looking-Glass • Charles Dodgson, AKA Lewis Carroll

... 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. A ...
— Old Valentines - A Love Story • Munson Aldrich Havens

... of the ceremoniousnesse of the King of Spayne Listening to no reasoning for it, be it good or bad Many women now-a-days of mean sort in the streets, but no men Milke, which I drank to take away, my heartburne No money to do it with, nor anybody to trust us without it Rather hear a cat mew, than the best musique in the world Says, of all places, if there be hell, it is here So to bed in some little discontent, but no words from me The gentlemen captains will undo us To bed, after washing my legs and feet with warm water Venison-pasty that we ...
— Widger's Quotations from The Diary of Samuel Pepys • David Widger

... riot and colour of an Eastern tyranny. How should they care? Now there are ruins—ruins, and the cobras slip in and out through the deserted holy places. They breed their writhing young in the sleeping-chambers of queens, the tigers mew in the moonlight, and the giant spider, more terrible than the cobra, strikes with its black poison-claw and, paralyzing the life of the victim, sucks its brain ...
— The Ninth Vibration And Other Stories • L. Adams Beck

... auw, mauw, hee, wee, miaw, waw, wurr, whirr, ghurr, wew, mew, whew, isssss, tz, tz, ...
— Heads and Tales • Various

... 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

... little days, in which to do So much! e.g., the twelfth: ah, it was there The Secretary met his Waterloo, But perished gamely, playing twenty-two; His clubs (ten little days!) lie bleaching where Sea-poppies blow (ten days) and wheeling sea-birds mew.... ...
— The Sunny Side • A. A. Milne

... my 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 ...
— Ernest Linwood - or, The Inner Life of the Author • Caroline Lee Hentz

... 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 ...
— The Only True Mother Goose Melodies - Without Addition or Abridgement • Munroe and Francis

... of these days. Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous, By drunken prophecies, libels, and dreams, To set my brother Clarence and the king In deadly hate the one against the other: And if King Edward be as true and just As I am subtle, false, and treacherous, This day should Clarence closely be mew'd up,— About a prophecy which says that G Of Edward's heirs the murderer shall be. Dive, thoughts, down to my soul:—here ...
— The Life and Death of King Richard III • William Shakespeare [Collins edition]

... But Grumpy ignored the command. A scared mew from a kitten nerved the Cat, and she launched her ultimatum, which ultimatum was herself. Eighteen sharp claws, a mouthful of keen teeth, had Pussy, and she worked them all with a desperate will when she landed on Grumpy's bare, bald, sensitive nose, just the spot of all where ...
— Johnny Bear - And Other Stories From Lives of the Hunted • E. T. Seton

... far 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

... Zimmerman speaks of a young girl who had convulsions when she heard the rustling of oiled silk. Boyle, the father of chemistry, could not conquer an aversion he had to the sound of water running through pipes. A gentleman of the Court of the Emperor Ferdinand suffered epistaxis when he heard a cat mew. La Mothe Le Vayer could not endure the sounds of musical instruments, although he experienced pleasurable sensations when he heard a clap of thunder. It is said that a chaplain in England always had a sensation of cold at the top of his head when he read the 53d chapter ...
— Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine • George M. Gould

... red against the rank green; mosses swinging from branch to branch in snaky coils wherever the clouds settled and rested; islands studding the sea like emerald gems; grouse drumming their spring song through the dark underbrush; sea-mew and Mother Carey's chickens screaming and clacking overhead; the snowy summits red as wine in the sunset glow—all made up an April scene long cherished by these ...
— Vikings of the Pacific - The Adventures of the Explorers who Came from the West, Eastward • Agnes C. Laut

... you, sir; What is the reason that you use me thus? I lov'd you ever: But it is no matter; Let Hercules himself do what he may, The cat will mew,[45] and ...
— Hamlet • William Shakespeare

... "there has been a silent betrothal in the house! Father does not yet know it, but Rudy and Babette have reached each other their paws under the table, and he trod three times on my fore-paws, but still I did not mew, for that would ...
— The Ice-Maiden: and Other Tales. • Hans Christian Andersen

... put your finger on the real blot when you said those words, developing equally every fibre of your natures. That's what nobody yet wants us women to do. They're trying hard enough to develop us intellectually; but morally and socially they want to mew us up just as close as ever. And they won't succeed. The zenana must go. Sooner or later, I'm sure, if you begin by educating women, you must end by ...
— The Woman Who Did • Grant Allen

... 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 ...
— The Green Helmet and Other Poems • William Butler Yeats

... the story of my life, so far as it has gone. I tell it you to show you how easy it is to be "taken in." Fix on your house, and mew piteously at the back door. When it is opened run in and rub yourself against the first leg you come across. Rub hard, and look up confidingly. Nothing gets round human beings, I have noticed, quicker than confidence. They don't get much of it, and it pleases them. Always be confiding. ...
— Novel Notes • Jerome K. Jerome

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

... Perhaps it was; I don't know; but a very wonderful 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, ...
— Queer Stories for Boys and Girls • Edward Eggleston

... wasn't the right word, but it was not a bark, growl, mew, cheep, squawk or snarl. Gulp was as close as Stern could come, a dry and almost painful gulping noise that expressed devotion in some totally foreign way that Stern ...
— Martians Never Die • Lucius Daniel

... night 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

... half an hour, and thought that she had gone a long way, and felt quite sure that she could not be very far from the railway station which led to Rosebury, the Pink awoke, and twisting and turning in her narrow basket began to mew loudly. ...
— The Palace Beautiful - A Story for Girls • L. T. Meade

... he had not hitherto had an opportunity of studying. He looked 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

... Sylvanus to take the place of Maguffin about the two horses, for he was the newcomer. Now, Mr. Pawkins bore no malice, but, when jokes were going, he did not like to be left the chief victim. He had had some fun out of the boys; now he would have some more. The Yankee could mew to perfection. He began, and Sylvanus called the strange cat. It would not come, so he climbed the ladder after it, and had almost reached the top, when, with vicious cries, the animal flew at him, seized him by the back of the neck, and drew blood that ...
— Two Knapsacks - A Novel of Canadian Summer Life • John Campbell

... 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 ...
— Aurelian - or, Rome in the Third Century • William Ware

... few 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: What reason d'ye give? Because ...
— Poems (Volume II.) • Jonathan Swift

... spring into the circle at one side, and the mouse dashes out at the other—public sympathy being with the mouse, his or her movements are aided when possible. When the cat is in the circle, the players lower their arms so as to keep the enemy prisoner. The cat goes around meekly, crying "mew," while the rest dance around her. With a sudden "miaou!" she tries to break through any weak place in ...
— Games For All Occasions • Mary E. Blain

... interest was 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

... 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, or whistle ...
— Little Prudy's Sister Susy • Sophie May

... 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 ...
— We Two • Edna Lyall

... 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 to ensconce herself in a corner of the window-sill, ...
— Stories of Animal Sagacity • W.H.G. Kingston

... 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 them for moving like frightened geese, and, with hat in ...
— The Discovery of the Source of the Nile • John Hanning Speke

... lovingly together till they came to the cave. It was now dark, and they saw the basket waiting below; the fox assisted the poor cat into it. "There is only room for one," said he, "you must go first!" Up rose the basket; the fox heard a piteous mew, and no more. ...
— The Pilgrims Of The Rhine • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... Noise, Vermin or ill Air. 2. At large; so called from being in a high Room, with open Windows towards the North or North-East. The former is accounted the best Mewing. I shall not insist on the erecting or ordering of this Mew, leaving that to the Discretion of the Faulconer; only before he mews his Hawk, see if they have Lice, to pepper and scowre them too. The best time to draw the Field-Hawk from the Mew, is in June, and she will be ready to fly in August; the Hawks ...
— The School of Recreation (1684 edition) • Robert Howlett

... that curious 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 with those furry things any longer—they made her ...
— The Light in the Clearing • Irving Bacheller

... in a circle, and listened in solemn silence. Even the tiniest mew of farewell would have been welcome, but it was not vouchsafed. Nothing was heard but the thumping of that wicked tail (to which they had once seen Fluffy cling) upon the bear-skin rug on which they had so often lost her. She was not there now, for ...
— Harper's Young People, December 23, 1879 - An Illustrated Weekly • Various

... and the filling sail! The scudding like a sea-mew, with the hand Firm on the tiller! See, the red-shored land Receding, as we brave the hastening gale! White gleam the wave-tops, and the breakers' roar Sounds thunderingly on the far ...
— A Woman's Love Letters • Sophie M. Almon-Hensley

... attracted by the unmistakable mew of a kitten. Then he heard the padding sound of cautious human footsteps, and a clear feminine voice calling "Kitty, kitty," in low tones. The steps and the voice seemed coming toward him; since there was no sound of crackling brush, he ...
— Astounding Stories, July, 1931 • Various

... hugged 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; ...
— Droll Stories, Volume 3 • Honore de Balzac

... the Devil is in us, if we stay till Execution Day: Why, this is worse than being mew'd up at Hackney-School—my Fortune's my own, without my Grandmother, and with that Stock I'll set up for my self, and see what Traffick this wide World ...
— The Works of Aphra Behn - Volume IV. • Aphra Behn

... answered himself, as though he knew he was being talked about. He came out from under the back steps, rubbed up against Flossie's fat, chubby legs with a mew and a purr, and then, seeing a place where the sun shone nice and warm on the steps, the cat curled up there and began to wash its face, using its ...
— Bobbsey Twins in Washington • Laura Lee Hope

... kitten, having found the process of licking itself dry more fatiguing than it had expected, gave vent to a faint mew of distress. It was all that was wanting to set Martin's indignant heart into a blaze of inexpressible fury. Bob Croaker's visage instantly received a shower of sharp, stinging blows, that had the double effect of taking that youth by surprise and throwing ...
— Martin Rattler • Robert Michael Ballantyne

... witch-grass round the hazel spring May sharply to the night-air sing, But there no more shall withered hags Refresh at ease their broomstick nags, Or taste those hazel-shadowed waters As beverage meet for Satan's daughters; No more their mimic tones be heard, The mew of cat, the chirp of bird, Shrill blending with the hoarser laughter Of the fell demon following after! The cautious goodman nails no more A horseshoe on his outer door, Lest some unseemly hag should fit To his own mouth her bridle-bit; The goodwife's churn no ...
— The Complete Works of Whittier - The Standard Library Edition with a linked Index • John Greenleaf Whittier

... In my couch on the strand, For the screams of the sea-fowl. The mew as he comes Every morn from the main Is sure ...
— Ten Great Religions - An Essay in Comparative Theology • James Freeman Clarke

... Salmon, and the Lynx, and the Ling worm, the Seal, the Stone, and the Sea-mew; the Buck-goat, the Apple-tree, the Bull, the Adder, and ...
— The House of the Wolfings - A Tale of the House of the Wolfings and All the Kindreds of the Mark Written in Prose and in Verse • William Morris

... 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 cup ...
— Minna von Barnhelm • Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

... as in voice, has the main form of "aw" as in saw, and the final form in short "i," as in pin. The vowel "u" is sounded like "oo" (moon) in a few words, as in rule, truth. Generally, it sounds about like "ew" in new or mew. In some of the forms the front of the mouth will be open, in some half open, and in some, as in the case of long "e" (meet), nearly closed. Whatever the degree of opening, the jaw should never be allowed ...
— Public Speaking • Irvah Lester Winter

... Puss, 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 a life. ...
— Little Folks (November 1884) - A Magazine for the Young • Various

... a boy's 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

... dash him as it dashed its own unpitied offspring, dead upon the rocks? And as this conviction dawned on him, withering all his energy of heart, the wind wailed over him, the water bubbled in his ears, and the sea-mew, napping as it flew past him, uttered above his head its plaintive scream. His heart sank within him. With a quick motion he turned in the water, and with arms wearied-out he swam back again, as for dear life, towards the little landing-place ...
— St. Winifred's - The World of School • Frederic W. Farrar

... disturbed pussy's and "the Captain's" (so I have called my old setter friend) nap, for puss stands up on her morocco bed and arches her back like a horseshoe, and then springs, with a jolted-out "mew-r-r-r," right on my table, and proceeds to walk over this manuscript, carrying her tail up as if she wanted to light it by the gas and beg me then to touch it to my pipe and stop scribbling. So I shall presently. And the Captain strolls up to lay his cold nose on my ...
— Captain Mugford - Our Salt and Fresh Water Tutors • W.H.G. Kingston

... does not experience it? If your virtue cries out, is it not because it feels the approach of death? O wretch! those far off voices that you hear groaning in your heart, do you think they are sobs? They are, perhaps, only the cry of the sea-mew, that funereal bird of the tempest, whose presence portends shipwreck. Who has ever told the story of the childhood of those who have died stained with human blood? They, also, have been good in their day; they sometimes bury their ...
— The Confession of a Child of The Century • Alfred de Musset

... behind A sobbing snake-like tail of creamy foam; And dancing hither, thither, sometimes shot Toward the island; then, when Gladys looked, Were leaving it to leeward. And the maid Whistled a wind to come and rock the craft, And would be leaning down her head to mew At cat-fish, then lift out into her lap And dandle baby-seals, which, having kissed, She flung to their sleek mothers, till her own Rebuked her in good English, after cried, "Luff, luff, we shall be swamped." "I will not luff," Sobbed the fair mischief; "you ...
— Poems by Jean Ingelow, In Two Volumes, Volume I. • Jean Ingelow

... use,' he said at last; 'it's no use!' and then went and threw hisself down upon that 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 twice ...
— Fenton's Quest • M. E. Braddon

... ain't quite sure, sir," replied the little plain one, with an inquiring frown at the chandelier, "but I know it 'ad somethink to do with cats. P'r'aps it was Mew Street; but I'm quite ...
— Post Haste • R.M. Ballantyne

... cried Malise; "I must first see this gay bird safely in mew. Aye, and bid the Abbot William ...
— The Black Douglas • S. R. Crockett

... it was as if he were trying to tell Neewa that he was a dunce to lie there still thinking it was night when the sun was up outside. But he failed. Neewa was in the edge of his Long Sleep—the beginning of USKE-POW-A-MEW, the dream land ...
— Nomads of the North - A Story of Romance and Adventure under the Open Stars • James Oliver Curwood

... need not fear, Nor make that plain-tive mew; Don't be a-fraid, but ven-ture near, And lap the milk we bring you here, For none ...
— The Infant's Delight: Poetry • Anonymous

... four-legged. She would have been rather startled at such an enunciation of her practice, but she was devoted to it as a practice: she would give her own chair to the cat and sit on the settle herself; get up at midnight, if a mew or a bark called her, though the thermometer was below zero; The tenderloin of her steak or the liver of her chicken was saved for a pining kitten or an ancient and toothless cat; and no disease or wound daunted her faithful nursing, or disgusted her devoted tenderness. ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 8, No. 46, August, 1861 • Various

... and loves to listen to "hollow winds and ever-beating waves" and "sea-mew's clang." Milton appears at every turn, not only in single epithets like "Lydian airs," "the level brine," "low-thoughted cares," "the light fantastic dance," but in the entire spirit, imagery, and diction of the poem. A few lines ...
— A History of English Romanticism in the Eighteenth Century • Henry A. Beers

... in her 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 ...
— Hollyhock - A Spirit of Mischief • L. T. Meade

... had, 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 sad as a ...
— The Works of Aphra Behn, Vol. I (of 6) • Aphra Behn

... Gorgon's mammoth skull, Thrown up by Titan spade, From out those caves Where saurians with mastodons had played, Before the sea had made their homes their graves, And scared their ghosts with screech of sea-born mew ...
— Rowena & Harold - A Romance in Rhyme of an Olden Time, of Hastyngs and Normanhurst • Wm. Stephen Pryer

... 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; A flood-tide, ...
— Gawayne And The Green Knight - A Fairy Tale • Charlton Miner Lewis

... looked at him, she was horrified to perceive a small black head with a pair of glistening green eyes peeping out of the breast of his coat, and immediately afterwards the kitten, catching sight of the cups and saucers on the table, began to mew frantically and scrambled suddenly out of its shelter, inflicting a severe scratch on Owen's restraining hands as it jumped to ...
— The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists • Robert Tressell

... bookmen, on submissive slaves; Affright with terror of a wilfull death Those whom black murders of inhumane sin Has living damnd; Ime yet in my owne heart White as a babe, as Innocent as light From any mortall guilt; and were my soule Drawn fro this mew[119] of flesh twould quickly streatch Like a swift Falkon her aspiring wings And soare at heaven. Nature instructs us Death Is due to all: how can't be then a Sinn To die, or he more guilty of offense That kills himselfe ...
— A Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. II • Various

... "Mew-mew," said the white kitty. "I've done lots of work to-day. I unwound a big ball of green worsted for my little mistress, and I'm tired. Let somebody else ...
— Harper's Young People, November 4, 1879 - An Illustrated Weekly • Various

... with the track Of raging tempests, till her lurid light Was sadly veiled within the clouds. Again The forest sounds; the surf upon the shore; The dolphin's mood, uncertain where to play; The sea-mew on the land; the heron used To wade among the shallows, borne aloft And soaring on his wings — all these alarm; The raven, too, who plunged his head in spray, As if to anticipate the coming rain, And trod the margin with unsteady gait. ...
— Pharsalia; Dramatic Episodes of the Civil Wars • Lucan

... corps of the Woondock Snodee," Meinik replied. "We were away at Bhanno when the order came, and the rest had gone down the river before we got to Mew; so we came on by ourselves, not wishing ...
— On the Irrawaddy - A Story of the First Burmese War • G. A. Henty

... had rather be a kitten and cry mew Than one of these same metre ballad-mongers; I had rather hear ...
— The Verbalist • Thomas Embly Osmun, (AKA Alfred Ayres)

... then made good the proverb, in vino veritas, for in his cups he out with that which was no doubt to have been kept a secret. 'Twas to his pot companions that, after his head was somewhat heated with strong liquors, he discovered that he was sent forth by Dr. Mew, the then Vice- Chancellor of Oxford, on the design before related, and under the protection of Justice Morton, a warrant under whose hand and ...
— The History of Thomas Ellwood Written by Himself • Thomas Ellwood

... cried Anne, sitting up, "come here," and Belinda with a plaintive mew made one last effort, pulled herself into the room, and flew ...
— Judy • Temple Bailey

... 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 in the neighborhood, called Gledscraig. As he was by no means satisfied ...
— The Abbot • Sir Walter Scott

... 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 ...
— The Golden Spears - And Other Fairy Tales • Edmund Leamy

... he softly seals the eyes of men, And opens them at will from sleep. With this In hand, the mighty Argos-queller flew, And lighting on Pieria, from the sky Plunged downward to the deep, and skimmed its face Like hovering sea-mew, that on the broad gulfs Of the unfruitful ocean seeks her prey, And often dips her pinions in the brine. So Hermes flew along the waste of waves. But when he reached that island, far away, Forth from the dark-blue ocean-swell he stepped ...
— Poetical Works of William Cullen Bryant - Household Edition • William Cullen Bryant

... girls and their attendant. Inna little knew to what she was going, tripping along and talking to Jenny. Clear of the drive, their path home lay in the moonlight, and not far had they gone when a little wailing mew came to them from behind a hedge, and then a small white and black kitten emerged therefrom, and came and rubbed herself round Inna's feet. She caught it up and fondled it, the knowing little pleader mewing such a pleased mew then, that ...
— The Heiress of Wyvern Court • Emilie Searchfield

... 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

... not at all funny, and I don't see anything to laugh at," spoke pussy, and then Susie saw that the white kitten had a large tear in each eye. "That was a mew," ...
— Sammie and Susie Littletail • Howard R. Garis

... bank, then 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

... couldn't sleep a wink last night because of the quiet. I was just dropping off when a beast of a bird outside the window gave a chirrup, and it brought me up with a jerk as though somebody had fired a gun. There's a damned cat somewhere near my room that mews. I lie in bed waiting for the next mew, ...
— Something New • Pelham Grenville Wodehouse

... it was 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 on ...
— A Sheaf of Corn • Mary E. Mann

... 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 naught but "Mew," ...
— Pinafore Palace • Various

... to the closet, I will just take one damson—it shall be the last. I will never come here again without mamma's leave." So she opened the closet door and took one damson, and then another, and then two more. Whilst she was taking the last, she heard the cat mew. She did not know that the cat had followed her into the room; and she was so frightened that she spilled some of the red juice upon her frock, but she did not perceive it at the time. She then left the closet, and went, as usual, to wash her ...
— The Fairchild Family • Mary Martha Sherwood

... his papa's shining lip. After every three or four sips the father bent down to his son and kissed him on the head. A grey cat with its tail in the air was rubbing itself against one of the table legs, and with a plaintive mew proclaiming its desire for food. Liza hid behind the verandah curtain, and fastened her eyes upon the members of her former family; her ...
— Love and Other Stories • Anton Chekhov

... 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 that a lying Scotsman had said he had heard ...
— Oddsfish! • Robert Hugh Benson

... lifted it up—and there was a cat lying on the floor under it. I had heard you had lost yours and I took it this was your pet. I was afraid he was dead at first. He was lying there with his eyes closed; but when I bent over him he opened them and gave a pitiful little mew; or rather his mouth made the motion of a mew, for he was too weak to utter ...
— The Golden Road • Lucy Maud Montgomery

... never return to mine own house again? We are lodg'd here in the miserablest dog-hole, A Conjurers circle gives content above it, A hawks mew is a princely palace to it, We have a bed no bigger than a basket, And there we lie like butter clapt together, And sweat our selves to sawce immediately, The fumes are infinite inhabite here too; And to that so thick, they cut like marmalet, So various too, they'l pose a gold-finder, ...
— Rule a Wife, and Have a Wife - Beaumont & Fletcher's Works (3 of 10) • Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher

... 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 Youth's Coronal • Hannah Flagg Gould

... 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 ...
— Shakspere And Montaigne • Jacob Feis

... 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 ...
— The Idler Magazine, Volume III, March 1893 - An Illustrated Monthly • Various

... came Pussy-cat, and away Robin ran; Says little Robin Redbreast, "Catch me if you can." Little Robin Redbreast flew upon a wall, Pussy-cat jumped after him, and almost got a fall; Little Robin chirp'd and sang, and what did Pussy say? Pussy-cat said "Mew," and ...
— Young Canada's Nursery Rhymes • Various

... mother," interrupted Susie; "and, don't you think, sometimes Annie would pull pussy's tail and make her say 'Mew,' and we made believe that one of the little girls cried to go to ...
— The Allis Family; or, Scenes of Western Life • American Sunday School Union

... subject to the other with such astonishing rapidity that Susan gave up trying to follow her, and waited patiently till she should have leisure to notice Gambetta. And at length he drew attention to himself, for evidently feeling neglected, he opened his mouth and uttered a tiny plaintive mew. Mademoiselle looked round at once at her favourite, and her eye fell on the ...
— Susan - A Story for Children • Amy Walton

... kitchen by another way which did not lead past the stairs. He went out there, treading on tiptoe. The cat had looked up, stretched, and lazily gotten upon his feet and followed him, tail waving like a pennant. He brushed around Von Rosen out in the kitchen, and mewed a little, delicate, highbred mew. The dog came leaping up the basement stairs, sat up and begged. Von Rosen opened the ice box and found therein some steak. He cut off large pieces and fed the cat and dog. He also found milk ...
— The Butterfly House • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

... company in the evening, and my interesting patient was put into another room. Once, in the midst of conversation, I thought I heard a plaintive mew, but could not go to see, and soon forgot all about it; but when the guests left, my heart was rent by finding Czar stretched out ...
— Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag, Vol. 5 - Jimmy's Cruise in the Pinafore, Etc. • Louisa M. Alcott

... good service reap this recompense, To be clapt up in close and secret mew, And as a thief be after dragged from thence, To suffer punishment as law finds due; Let Godfrey come or send, I will not hence Until we know who shall this bargain rue, That of our tragedy the late done fact May be the first, and this ...
— Jerusalem Delivered • Torquato Tasso

... nearly so, but extremely deaf, as it did not hear our footsteps until we were quite close behind it. Then it sprang round, and, putting up its back and tail, while the black hair stood all on end, uttered a hoarse mew and ...
— The Coral Island - A Tale Of The Pacific Ocean • R. M. Ballantyne

... ten o'clock mail. The Dragon fell on the Manticora at once, and the mail was no defense. The mewings were heard all over the town. All the kitties and the milk the Manticora had had seemed to have strengthened its mew wonderfully. Then there was a sad silence, and presently the people whose windows looked that way saw the Dragon come walking down the steps of the General Post Office spitting fire and smoke, together with tufts of Manticora ...
— The Book of Dragons • Edith Nesbit

... counter-tenor, that I wish I had such another at Brambleton-hall, to wake the maids of a morning. Do you know where I could find one of his brood?' 'Probably in the work-house at St Giles's parish, madam; but I protest I know not his particular mew!' My uncle, frying with vexation, cried, 'Good God, sister, how you talk! I have told you twenty times, that this gentleman's name is not Gwynn.' — 'Hoity toity, brother mine (she replied) no offence, I hope ...
— The Expedition of Humphry Clinker • Tobias Smollett

... Master soon wrote That they all of them knew How to read the word "milk" And to spell the word "mew." And they all washed their faces Before they took tea: "Were there ever such dears!" ...
— Children's Literature - A Textbook of Sources for Teachers and Teacher-Training Classes • Charles Madison Curry

... one evening, when she was standing at the window of the corridor, refreshing her eye with gazing at the glorious sunset in the midst of a pile of crimson and purple clouds, reflected in the ocean—'Mary, Ward is going to Mew ...
— Dynevor Terrace (Vol. II) • Charlotte M. Yonge

... impatiently; 'and yet it is not ill said. I wish there had been more warmth in thy reply, Arthur; but I must recollect, were an eagle bred in a falcon's mew and hooded like a reclaimed hawk, he could not at first gaze steadily on the sun. Listen to me, my dearest Arthur. The state of this nation no more implies prosperity, than the florid colour of a feverish patient is a symptom ...
— Redgauntlet • Sir Walter Scott

... never told you Not to speak when spoken to! But it's not for me to scold you:— Dogs bark, and pussies mew! ...
— There & Back • George MacDonald

... Bishop planted a Norfolk pine in the 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 ...
— Life of John Coleridge Patteson • Charlotte M. Yonge

... you to make my acquaintance. I am such a jolly bird. Sometimes I get all the dogs in my neighborhood howling by whistling just like their masters. Another time I mew like a cat, then again I give some soft sweet notes different from those of ...
— Birds Illustrated by Color Photography [December, 1897], Vol 2. No 6. • Various



Words linked to "Mew" :   seagull, let out, Larus canus, sea mew, cry, mew gull, let loose, emit, sea gull, Larus



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