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Mew   Listen
verb
Mew  v. i.  To cast the feathers; to molt; hence, to change; to put on a new appearance. "Now everything doth mew, And shifts his rustic winter robe."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Mew" Quotes from Famous Books



... the hinges were rusty, and it creaked with a 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

... running across the end of the path. Puss dashed after him; and just as she thought she really had got him this time, she found herself caught by the neck, for she had put her head into one of the snares. She was nearly strangled and could scarcely even mew. The mouse was so close that he heard the feeble mew, and in a terrible fright, thinking the cat was after him, he peeped through the stems of the barley to make sure which way to run to get away from her. What was ...
— Hindu Tales from the Sanskrit • S. M. Mitra and Nancy Bell

... grounds, and all manner of weeds, so do gross humours in an idle body, Ignavum corrumpunt otia corpus. A horse in a stable that never travels, a hawk in a mew that seldom flies, are both subject to diseases; which left unto themselves, are most free from any such encumbrances. An idle dog will be mangy, and how shall an idle person think to escape? Idleness of the mind is much worse ...
— The Anatomy of Melancholy • Democritus Junior

... merry with the mice in the royal palace, and killed so many that they could not be counted. At last she grew warm with the work and thirsty, so she stood still, lifted up her head and cried, "Mew. Mew!" When they heard this strange cry, the King and all his people were frightened, and in their terror ran all at once out of the palace. Then the King took counsel what was best to be done; at last it was determined to send a herald to the cat, and demand that she should leave the palace, ...
— Household Tales by Brothers Grimm • Grimm Brothers

... voice—and hearing that, Trots nearer with a pit-a-pat! "Now, Bill, present and fire, There's a bold 'un, And send the tabby to the old 'un." Bang! went the pistol, and in the mire Rolled Tink without a mew— Flop! fell his mistress in a stew! While Bill and Tom both fled, Leaving the accomplish'd Tink quite finish'd, For Bill had actually diminish'd The feline favorite by a head! Leaving his undone mistress to bewail, In deepest woe, And to her ...
— The Sketches of Seymour (Illustrated), Complete • Robert Seymour

... door, laid his head 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 day, and if ever a boy had been ...
— The Story Girl • Lucy Maud Montgomery

... my moan. The fire burns low, the candle flickers dim. Alone—alone! I rock, and think of him. Of him who left me in the purple pride Of early manhood. Yestermorn he went. The sun shone bright, and scintillant the tide. O'er which the sea-mew swept, with dewy drops besprent. Before he went he kissed me; and I watched His boat that lay so still and stately, till Automaton she seemed, and that she moved To where she willed of her own force and law. But I knew better: his was the will That set ...
— Laura Secord, the heroine of 1812. - A Drama. And Other Poems. • Sarah Anne Curzon

... 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 to do ...
— A Sheaf of Corn • Mary E. Mann

... of. Hatan, rebellion of. Haunted deserts. Havret, Father H. Hawariy (Avarian), the term. Hawks, hawking in Georgia, Yezd and Kerman; Badakhshan; Etzina; among the Tartars; on shores and islands of Northern Ocean Kublai's sport at Chagannor; in mew at Chandu; trained eagles; Kublai's establishment of; in Tibet; Sumatra; Maabar. Hayton I. (Hethum), king of Lesser Armenia, his autograph. Hazaras, the, Mongol origin of, lax custom ascribed to. Hazbana, king of Abyssinia. Heat, great at Hormuz, in India. Heaven, City of (Kinsay). ...
— The Travels of Marco Polo, Volume 2 • Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa

... shells, And thick with white bells the clover-hill swells High over the full-toned sea: O hither, come hither and furl your sails, Come hither to me and to me: Hither, come hither and frolic and play; Here it is only the mew that wails; We will sing to you all the day: Mariner, mariner, furl your sails, For here are the blissful downs and dales, And merrily merrily carol the gales, And the spangle dances in bight [1] and bay, And the rainbow forms ...
— The Early Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson • Tennyson

... putting the end of the instrument to their mouths for an answer. Archie even declared that he had caught her alone in the back-kitchen shoving the cat's head into the mouth-piece of the instrument, and pinching its tail to make it mew. ...
— The Buffalo Runners - A Tale of the Red River Plains • R.M. Ballantyne

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

... hear the husky cry with which this bird expresses most of his emotions,—about as nearly a "mew," to my ears, as the catbird executes. Whether frolicking with a comrade among the bushes, reproving a too inquisitive bird student, or warning the neighborhood against some monster like a stray kitten, this one cry seemed to answer for all his needs, and, excepting the song, ...
— A Bird-Lover in the West • Olive Thorne Miller

... will not dismantle those queer rooms that received so hospitably the limping, draggled-tailed guest—they must again shelter her when she comes as proud Lady Landale! How delicious it would be if the tempest would only rage again, and the sea-mew shriek, and the caverns roar and thunder, and I knew you were as happy as ...
— The Light of Scarthey • Egerton Castle

... 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 seal he ...
— The History of Thomas Ellwood Written by Himself • Thomas Ellwood

... 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 ...
— THE JAPANESE TWINS • Lucy Fitch Perkins

... 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 knee, slowly wag his ...
— Captain Mugford - Our Salt and Fresh Water Tutors • W.H.G. Kingston

... 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

... Do you think I would be accessory to bringing a Papist into favour in these times, when, as my good Lord said in the House, there should not be a Popish manservant, nor a Popish maid-servant, not so much as dog or cat, left to bark or mew about ...
— Peveril of the Peak • Sir Walter Scott

... whole court said no cat ever ate with a better appetite. There were excellent ragouts, and the prince made use of the cat's paw to taste them; but he sometimes pulled his paw too roughly, and Bluet, not understanding raillery, began to mew and be quite out of patience. The princess observing it, "Bring that fricassee and that tart to poor Bluet," said she; "see how ...
— The Fairy Book - The Best Popular Stories Selected and Rendered Anew • Dinah Maria Mulock (AKA Miss Mulock)

... bushy tail was in a 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 ...
— Animal Heroes • Ernest Thompson Seton

... The sound of "oi," 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 to become ...
— Public Speaking • Irvah Lester Winter

... hundred years 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

... 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

... on 'em, your worship," said Robin, taking the bundle in his hand. "Not a cat said mew when they felt my whittle. Marry, I spoilt their catterwauling: I've ...
— Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 (of 2) • John Roby

... 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," ...
— Young Canada's Nursery Rhymes • Various

... 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 favourite ...
— The Golden Treasury - Of the Best Songs and Lyrical Poems in the English Language • Various

... 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," and Robin flew away. ...
— Pinafore Palace • Various

... 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

... beat that for a monaker? This sailor of mine goes good to grub me, but he never shows for forty-eight hours—or years, I forget which. Anyhow, I stand it as long as I can, then I dig my way up to a hatch and mew like a house-cat. It seems they were hep from the start, and battened me down on purpose, then made book on how long I'd stay hid. Oh, it's a funny joke, and they all get a stomach laugh when I show. When ...
— The Silver Horde • Rex Beach

... last visit became the means of adding considerably to our knowledge of the surrounding country. One of the immediate consequences was the discovery of several small streams of fresh water. The principal of these, which we named Mew River (after its first finder, the sergeant of marines on board) has its mouth in a small mangrove creek three quarters of a mile to the eastward of Evans Bay. About five miles further up its source was found to be a spring among rocks in a dense ...
— Narrative Of The Voyage Of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, Commanded By The Late Captain Owen Stanley, R.N., F.R.S. Etc. During The Years 1846-1850. Including Discoveries And Surveys In New Guinea, The Louisiade • John MacGillivray

... conspirators tip-toed reluctantly to the back porch. Phil gingerly lifted the stone she had put on the box. Suddenly, faint but distinct, sounded an unmistakable mew under the box. ...
— Anne Of The Island • Lucy Maud Montgomery

... 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 know nawthin' ...
— Mr. Dooley: In the Hearts of His Countrymen • Finley Peter Dunne

... 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 any bird ...
— Birds Illustrated by Color Photography [December, 1897], Vol 2. No 6. • Various

... gray cat 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

... 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 for the River in August, will ...
— The School of Recreation (1684 edition) • Robert Howlett

... cliffs, and the rocks, and the hundreds of islands which surround this strand, live a race of fishermen, who, rivalling the sea-mew, skim the sea. Night and day, winter and summer, swarm their boats upon the waves; through the whistling tempest, through the foaming breakers, speed they unterrified with their light sails, that from the depths of the sea they may catch the silvery shoals of herrings, ...
— Strife and Peace • Fredrika Bremer

... 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 ...
— Poems (Volume II.) • Jonathan Swift

... 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 paws ...
— Bobbsey Twins in Washington • Laura Lee Hope

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

... native shore Fades o'er the waters blue. The night winds sigh, the breakers roar, And shrieks the wild sea-mew." ...
— The Real America in Romance, Volume 6; A Century Too Soon (A Story - of Bacon's Rebellion) • John R. Musick

... tremendous amount of steam in the operation. Any wholesome device which accomplishes this result is worthy of being perpetuated.... A draggled, forsaken little street-cat sneaks in the door, with a pitiful mew. (I'm sure I don't wonder! if one were tired of life, this would be just the place to take a fresh start.) The children break into the song, "I Love Little Pussy, Her Coat is so Warm," and the kindergartner asks the small boy with the great lunch pail if he wouldn't like ...
— Children's Rights and Others • Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin

... Would not one of those billows toss him up in its playful spray, and 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 ...
— St. Winifred's - The World of School • Frederic W. Farrar

... proceeded to take into consideration the question of the posture at the Eucharist. It was determined to recommend that a communicant, who, after conference with his minister, should declare that he could not conscientiously receive the bread and wine kneeling, might receive them sitting. Mew, Bishop of Winchester, an honest man, but illiterate, weak even in his best days, and now fast sinking into dotage, protested against this concession, and withdrew from the assembly. The other members continued to apply themselves vigorously to their task: and ...
— The History of England from the Accession of James II. - Volume 3 (of 5) • Thomas Babington Macaulay

... I sleep 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 ...
— The Elder Eddas of Saemund Sigfusson; and the Younger Eddas of Snorre Sturleson • Saemund Sigfusson and Snorre Sturleson

... could be for, when suddenly in came about a dozen cats carrying guitars and rolls of music, who took their places at one end of the room, and under the direction of a cat who beat time with a roll of paper began to mew in every imaginable key, and to draw their claws across the strings of the guitars, making the strangest kind of music that could be heard. The Prince hastily stopped up his ears, but even then the sight of these comical musicians sent him into ...
— The Blue Fairy Book • Various

... with 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 ...
— The Light in the Clearing • Irving Bacheller

... in the pale green West: In rosy wastes the low soft evening star Woke; while the last white sea-mew sought for rest; And tawny sails ...
— The New Morning - Poems • Alfred Noyes

... loft due ear stir why cliff tied cue jaw turn curl hilt coil boil tube cloy clay nail lute mail rose spar crag slay Paul flaw hoof haul firm quill gore pray sank boot wore stew herd heap stun stem fried twin tried scow bless smile mew term trout mere glean froze glide store slave sheaf team more quite noise mode daub boom shore stoop mend score gauze sheet much chain stone grime grunt hawk moon pawn shark pump peach quick block quack snake sound pouch queen march smash cramp stump smoke ...
— The Beacon Second Reader • James H. Fassett

... fawning courtiers and all the 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 with ...
— The Ninth Vibration And Other Stories • L. Adams Beck

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

... 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

... so on, is almost entirely acquired. In that case there is a large mnemic element in all the common perceptions by means of which we handle common objects. And, to take another kind of instance, imagine what our astonishment would be if we were to hear a cat bark or a dog mew. This emotion would be dependent upon past experience, and would therefore be a mnemic phenomenon according ...
— The Analysis of Mind • Bertrand Russell

... you 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, ...
— The Infant's Delight: Poetry • Anonymous

... 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

... und cats will mew, Und dogs will howl; und storms will ney, Und zhall not I more anguish sho, Vile lufly ...
— Translations of German Poetry in American Magazines 1741-1810 • Edward Ziegler Davis

... friend out Rodolphe heard on the staircase a prolonged mew, to which his carroty cat replied by another, whilst trying at the same time to slip out adroitly by ...
— Bohemians of the Latin Quarter • Henry Murger

... "Mew! mew! mew! Why don't they let me in? I have been here on these cold steps for three days. I am very hungry and unhappy. Why do they shut me out ...
— Friends and Helpers • Sarah J. Eddy

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

... 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 supposed ...
— Astounding Stories, July, 1931 • Various

... half a hundred folds, and at last was amply repaid, by finding out a nice piece of plum-cake, and the pips of an apple, which I could easily get at, one half of it having been eat away. Whilst I was thus engaged I heard a cat mew, and not knowing how near she might be, I endeavoured to jump out; but in the hurry I somehow or other entangled myself in the muslin, and pulled that, trunk and all, down with me; for the trunk stood half off the table, so that the least touch in the world overset it, otherwise ...
— The Life and Perambulations of a Mouse • Dorothy Kilner

... rat-eaters and dog-eaters," they cried; "so long as ye hear a dog bark or a cat mew within the walls ye may know that the city holds out; when the last hour has come, we will with our own hands set fire to the houses and perish in the flames rather than suffer our homes to be polluted and our liberties ...
— The Lily of Leyden • W.H.G. Kingston

... tabby, puss, pussy; kitten, kitty; grimalkin (an old she cat). Associated Words: purr, mew, miaul, caterwaul, ...
— Putnam's Word Book • Louis A. Flemming

... am glad of it with all my heart: I had rather be a kitten, and cry mew, Than one of these same metre ballet-mongers; I had rather hear a brazen canstick turn'd, Or a dry wheel grate on the axletree; And that would set my teeth nothing on edge, Nothing so much as mincing poetry: 'Tis like the forced gait of ...
— King Henry IV, The First Part • William Shakespeare [Hudson edition]

... 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 ...
— The Woman Who Did • Grant Allen

... under the water coming up to trouble me. Probably she has a large 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 stand ...
— Little Folks (July 1884) - A Magazine for the Young • Various

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

... him. 'It's no 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 ...
— Fenton's Quest • M. E. Braddon

... stood at my spot of thought In the white-stoned Garth, brooding thus her wrong, Her husband neared; and to shun his view By her hallowed mew I went from ...
— Wessex Poems and Other Verses • Thomas Hardy

... 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 ...
— Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine • George M. Gould

... 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 ...
— Life in Canada Fifty Years Ago • Canniff Haight

... Hill in wooding and watering at Mew island, the water at Batavia being very bad. We fell in with the Francis in the Straits of Sunda, though we imagined that ship had been far a-head. The Dutch made this a pretence for leaving us before we got to Mew island, and Captain Newsham also deserted us, so that we were left alone. We continued six or seven days at Mew island, during which time several boats came to us from Prince's island, and brought us turtle, cocoa-nuts, pine-apples, and other fruits. From Mew island we had ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 11 • Robert Kerr

... bounded from me in that remarkable sideways fashion peculiar to her kind, and stood regarding me from a distance, her tail straight up in the air and her mouth opening and shutting without a sound. At length having given vent to a very feeble attempt at a mew, she zig-zagged to me, and climbing upon my knee, immediately ...
— My Lady Caprice • Jeffrey Farnol

... thousand pounds to make it fit to live in, and his successor, Bishop Morley, spent even more. He actually laid out ten thousand pounds in improvements, only to meet with John Aubrey's criticism that he had repaired the building "without any regard to the rules of architecture." Doctor Peter Mew, who succeeded Morley, set about improving the castle from outside, and planted the top of the keep, into which the old walls had been tumbled, with fruit trees. Bishop Sumner, who held the See for forty-two years from 1827, turned the ...
— Highways and Byways in Surrey • Eric Parker

... little creature. Susy could but own that he was just as good 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, or whistle like ...
— Little Prudy's Sister Susy • Sophie May

... 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 sure ...
— Post Haste • R.M. Ballantyne

... 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

... brow, and turned toward the expectant housewives with a baffled air. The grave-digger was singing something so old that his adversary had forgotten it, or perhaps had never even heard it; but instantly the good gossips chanted the victorious refrain through their noses with voices shrill as a sea-mew's, and the grave-digger, forced to surrender, went ...
— The Devil's Pool • George Sand

... out to view, its rugged lines transfigured into ethereal loveliness by a misty veil of tender rose pink,—a hue curiously suggestive of some other and smaller sun that might have just set. Absolute silence prevailed. Not even the cry of a sea-mew or kittiwake broke the almost deathlike stillness,—no breath of wind stirred a ripple on the glassy water. The whole scene might well have been the fantastic dream of some imaginative painter, whose ambition soared beyond the limits of human skill. Yet it was only one of those ...
— Thelma • Marie Corelli

... true, And Dutchmen leave off drinking Brandy; When Cats do bark, and Dogs do Mew, And Brimstone is took for Sugar-candy: Or when that Whitsontide do fall, Within the Month of January; And a Cobler works without an Awl, O ...
— Wit and Mirth: or Pills to Purge Melancholy, Vol. 5 of 6 • Various

... 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 ...
— The Only True Mother Goose Melodies • Anonymous

... 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 ...
— Widger's Quotations from The Diary of Samuel Pepys • David Widger

... their bitter contests. There you and I were together, and the Jays, and the Dickinsons, and other anti-independents were arrayed against us. They cherished the monarchy of England, and we the rights of our countrymen. When our present government was in the mew, passing from Confederation to Union, how bitter was the schism between the Feds and Antis. Here you and I were together again. For although, for a moment, separated by the Atlantic from the scene of action, ...
— Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson - Volume I • Thomas Jefferson

... dragging its tumour over the deep, cramped and eat more and more into the sea round the hooker. Not a gull, not a sea-mew, nothing but snow. The expanse of the field of waves was becoming contracted and terrible; only three or four ...
— The Man Who Laughs • Victor Hugo

... poor cat was not only blind, or 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 ...
— The Coral Island - A Tale Of The Pacific Ocean • R. M. Ballantyne

... unnumbered to the oblivious deep. Yet time has been, as mouldering legends say,[56] When all yon western tract, and this bright bay, 110 Where now the sunshine sleeps, and wheeling white The sea-mew circles in fantastic flight, Was peopled wide; but the loud storm hath raved, Where its green top the high wood whispering waved, And many a year the slowly-rising flood Raked, where the Druids' uncooth altar stood. Thou only, aged mountain, dost remain, Stern monument ...
— The Poetical Works of William Lisle Bowles, Vol. 1 • William Lisle Bowles

... 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 ...
— Prisoners - Fast Bound In Misery And Iron • Mary Cholmondeley

... launch, 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

... Friar; "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 the poor people ...
— Playful Poems • Henry Morley

... 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 to ...
— Ten Great Religions - An Essay in Comparative Theology • James Freeman Clarke

... and setting up house with that other woman. I only hope she'll do for him as well as I have done. I wonder if she's beautiful and rich. Oh, how dreadful it all is!" But the cat made no comment on this tearful address—not as much as a mew. It rolled over into a warmer place and went to sleep again. Cats are particularly ...
— The Silent House • Fergus Hume

... messmates for life, Were often falling into strife, Which came to scratching, growls, and snaps, And spitting in the face, perhaps. A neighbour dog once chanced to call Just at the outset of their brawl, And, thinking Tray was cross and cruel, To snarl so sharp at Mrs. Mew-well, Growl'd rather roughly in his ear. 'And who are you to interfere?' Exclaim'd the cat, while in his face she flew; And, as was wise, he ...
— The Fables of La Fontaine - A New Edition, With Notes • Jean de La Fontaine

... all the critters!" 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 ...
— A Man's Woman • Frank Norris

... dark water, 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 ...
— A Woman's Love Letters • Sophie M. Almon-Hensley

... for jesses and restraint, Or for a will accipitrine to pursue! The veil of tutelar flesh to simple livers given, Or those brave-fledging fervours of the Saint, Whose heavenly falcon-craft doth never taint, Nor they in sickest time their ample virtue mew. ...
— New Poems • Francis Thompson

... would follow. As she 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

... 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 ...
— Through the Looking-Glass • Charles Dodgson, AKA Lewis Carroll

... eye of contemplation on the most dissipated tabby of the streets, and you shall discern the celestial quality of life set like an aureole about his tattered ears, and hear in his strident mew ...
— Practical Mysticism - A Little Book for Normal People • Evelyn Underhill

... interpret them: 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 roar, and the terrible ...
— The World I Live In • Helen Keller

... says of Bishop Mew:—Though he knew very little of divinity, or of any other learning, and was weak to a childish degree, yet obsequiousness and zeal raised him through several steps to this great see [Bath and ...
— The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, Vol. X. • Jonathan Swift

... encountering him. But at last there came a day of terrible tempest. The thunder god struck my ship and we were wrecked. Every man that was on board my ship was drowned saving only myself, for the white sea mew swims not more lightly on the waters than I. So I was picked up by a passing vessel, and it was the vessel of Rapp the Icelander. Instead of killing him I loved him, in that he had saved my life. Then he ...
— The Thirsty Sword • Robert Leighton

... "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 ...
— Harper's Young People, November 4, 1879 - An Illustrated Weekly • Various

... Raven language he understood completely. But the ordinary observer seldom attains farther than to comprehend some of the cries of anxiety and fear around him, often so unlike the accustomed carol of the bird,—as the mew of the Cat-Bird, the lamb-like bleating of the Veery and his impatient yeoick, the chaip of the Meadow-Lark, the towyee of the Chewink, the petulant psit and tsee of the Red-Winged Blackbird, and the hoarse cooing of the Bobolink. And with some of our most familiar birds ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 10, Number 59, September, 1862 • Various

... waistcoat, and it was a lion that made a spring, roaring at me; I pulled his coat-tails and off I went tugging at an old bear that swung a hind leg as he turned, in the queerest way, and then sat up and beating his breast sent out a mew-moan. Our room was richer to me than all the Grange while these performances were going forward. His monkey was almost as wonderful as his bear, only he was too big for it, and was obliged to aim at reality in his representation of this animal by means of a number of breakages; ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... James, as clamorous in your bath As porpoises that thresh the ocean-path; Oh! as you bathed when we were happy boys, You drowned the taps with inharmonious noise; Above the turmoil of the lathered wave How you would bellow ditties of the brave! How, wilder that the sea-mew, through the foam Whistle shrill strains that agonised your home. In the brimmed bath you revelled; all the floor Was swamped with spindrift; underneath the door The maddened water gushed, while strong and high Your piercing top-note staggered passers-by. But now I hear the running ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 159, September 29th, 1920 • Various

... drew the curtain at his side, And forth he peeped, but nothing spied. Yet, by his ear directed, guessed Something imprisoned in the chest; And, doubtful what, with prudent care Resolved it should continue there. At length a voice which well he knew, A long and melancholy mew, Saluting his poetic ears, Consoled him, and dispelled his fears; He left his bed, he trod the floor, He 'gan in haste the drawers explore, The lowest first, and without stop The next in order to the top. For 'tis a truth well ...
— The Humourous Poetry of the English Language • James Parton

... the squire, "the young gentleman hath been taught to rob my daughter of her bird. I find I must take care of my partridge-mew. I shall have some virtuous religious man or other set all my partridges at liberty." Then slapping a gentleman of the law, who was present, on the back, he cried out, "What say you to this, Mr Counsellor? Is not ...
— The History of Tom Jones, a foundling • Henry Fielding

... distance draw thy pack, let all be hushed, No clamour loud, no frantic joy be heard, Lest the wild hound run gadding o'er the plain Untractable, nor hear thy chiding voice. Now gently put her off; see how direct To her known mew she flies! Here, huntsman, bring (But without hurry) all thy jolly hounds, And calmly lay them in. How low they stoop, And seem to plough the ground! then all at once With greedy nostrils snuff the fuming steam That glads their fluttering hearts. As winds let loose From the dark caverns ...
— English Poets of the Eighteenth Century • Selected and Edited with an Introduction by Ernest Bernbaum

... 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 ...
— Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 5 • Charles Sylvester

... 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 the virgin ...
— Shakespeare's Christmas Gift to Queen Bess • Anna Benneson McMahan

... leave?" asked the Donkey. "Was it because there were no other cats there for you to mew to?" ...
— The Story of a Nodding Donkey • Laura Lee Hope

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

... close, Now list. That through effect of his ill thoughts In him my trust reposing, I was ta'en And after murder'd, need is not I tell. What therefore thou canst not have heard, that is, How cruel was the murder, shalt thou hear, And know if he have wrong'd me. A small grate Within that mew, which for my sake the name Of famine bears, where others yet must pine, Already through its opening sev'ral moons Had shown me, when I slept the evil sleep, That from the future tore the curtain off. This one, ...
— The Divine Comedy, Complete - The Vision of Paradise, Purgatory and Hell • Dante Alighieri

... "O scream, squeak, 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 cuffing the tones ...
— Hyperion • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

... 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 ...
— The Works of Aphra Behn, Vol. I (of 6) • Aphra Behn



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



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