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Mew   /mju/   Listen
Mew

noun
1.
The sound made by a cat (or any sound resembling this).  Synonyms: meow, miaou, miaow, miaul.
2.
The common gull of Eurasia and northeastern North America.  Synonyms: Larus canus, mew gull, sea mew.






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"Mew" Quotes from Famous Books



... moment the 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 him down upon the ...
— Martin Rattler • Robert Michael Ballantyne

... a way with Miss Carmichael to play with the pupil's mystification. "'Be a kitten and cry mew,'" said she, her eyes snapping with the humour of it. "Why mew and not baa? Why does the family of cow continue to ...
— Emmy Lou - Her Book and Heart • George Madden Martin

... of fun!" He then spoke in a low voice in Saunders's ear, and the young man stole round to the opposite side of the crowd. When the hymn had been sung, and the speaker was in the very act of commencing his discourse, a loud mew from Gregson, who was affecting to look very solemn, made the good man pause. He made a second attempt; but now a noise as of two cats fighting violently came from the opposite side of the concourse. The poor preacher looked sadly disconcerted; but when the pretended ...
— Amos Huntingdon • T.P. Wilson

... of the Cat tongue, twenty-two of that of Cattle, thirty of that of Dogs, and the 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 the variety ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 10, Number 59, September, 1862 • Various

... [178] The Arabians I mew the herb Eyebright under the name Adhil, It now makes an ingredient in British herbal tobacco, which is smoked most usefully for chronic bronchial colds. Some sceptics do not hesitate to say that the Eyebright owes its reputation solely to the fact that the tiny ...
— Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure • William Thomas Fernie

... all parts of the house. They would gather about me and whisper and talk about some way in which they would kill me; then the windows would be full of cats, and I could feel little kittens in my pockets; and when I walked I would step on kittens, and they would mew, and the old cats would howl and burst through the windows, and claw me to pieces. Then devils would take live, howling, squalling cats, and pound me with them until I was surrounded and walled in with dead cats. The more I suffered, and ...
— Fifteen Years in Hell • Luther Benson

... fair the light winds blew, As glad to waft him from his native home.... But when the sun was sinking in the sea, He seized his harp... Adieu, adieu! my native shore Fades o'er the waters blue; The night winds sigh, the breakers roar, And shrieks the wild sea-mew; Yon sun that sets upon the sea We follow in his flight; Farewell awhile to him and ...
— The Development of the Feeling for Nature in the Middle Ages and - Modern Times • Alfred Biese

... 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 affords ...
— The Works of Aphra Behn - Volume IV. • Aphra Behn

... and far, in the sea's life heaven, A sea-mew's flight from the wild sweet land, White plumed with foam, if the wind wake, seven Black helms, as of warriors that stir, not stand, From the depths that abide and the waves that environ Seven rocks rear heads that the midnight masks; ...
— Bob Strong's Holidays - Adrift in the Channel • John Conroy Hutcheson

... amusing. Cook, if in a good temper, could sing comic songs, and the housemaid, if she happened not to be offended with you, could imitate a hen that has laid an egg, a bottle of champagne being opened, and could mew like two cats fighting. The servants never told the children what the bad news was that the gentlemen had brought to Father. But they kept hinting that they could tell a great deal if they chose—and ...
— The Railway Children • E. Nesbit

... her feet" and did not resent his rough handling. The "little two" loved her because she allowed them to play all sorts of games with her. They could make believe she was very ill and tuck her up in bed, and she would swallow meekly such medicine as alum with salt and water without even a mew. ...
— Jimmy, Lucy, and All • Sophie May

... 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 ...
— Little Folks (July 1884) - A Magazine for the Young • Various

... "Mew! Mew!" interrupted Simpkin, and he scratched at the door. But the key was under the tailor's pillow, ...
— The Tailor of Gloucester • Beatrix Potter

... 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 Wells].—Swift. This ...
— The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, Vol. X. • Jonathan Swift

... 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 turn of ...
— Masters of the Guild • L. Lamprey

... 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 the chain ...
— Games For All Occasions • Mary E. Blain

... "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 in ...
— Friends and Helpers • Sarah J. Eddy

... 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 ...
— The Story Girl • Lucy Maud Montgomery

... he uttered these words before he saw an enormous cat, who, giving a loud "mew," by way of clearing her voice, asked him ...
— The Two Story Mittens and the Little Play Mittens - Being the Fourth Book of the Series • Frances Elizabeth Barrow

... surprise. "Have you seen anything of Kristofa 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

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

... that have no meaning. The girls are Abigail Williams, who is eleven; Anne Putnam, twelve; Mary Walcot; and Mary Lewis, seventeen; Elizabeth Hubbard, Elizabeth Booth, and Susannah Sheldon, eighteen; and two servant girls, Mary Warren, and Sarah Churchill. Tituba taught them to bark like dogs, mew like cats, grunt like hogs, to creep through chairs and under tables on their hands and feet, and pretend to have spasms.... Mr. Parris had read the books and pamphlets published in England ... and he came to the conclusion that they were bewitched. ...
— Woman's Life in Colonial Days • Carl Holliday

... from the nineteenth, seventeenth, and sixteenth editions of the three trials, which seem to have been contemporaneous (all in 1818) as they are made up into one book, with additional title over all, and the motto "Thrice the brindled cat hath mew'd." They are published by Hone himself, who I should have said was a publisher {185} as well as was to be. And though the trials only ended Dec. 20, 1817, the preface attached to this common title ...
— A Budget of Paradoxes, Volume I (of II) • Augustus De Morgan

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

... the 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 ...
— Irish Fairy Tales • Edmund Leamy

... intently, his tail waved slowly and his nose touched the hand that was gently rubbing the wet fur. Then, without any warning, the kitten's eyes opened and blinked and it uttered a faint mew. ...
— Prince Jan, St. Bernard • Forrestine C. Hooker

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

... their number had been transferred to the kitchen this morning to fill the goodly pasties which were to anticipate the blackberry tarts and sweet puddings, freezing in rich cream. But the sun had sunk behind the moor where the broom was only budding, and the last sea-mew had flown to its scaur, and the smouldering whins had leaped up into the first yellow flame of the bonfires, and the more shifting, fantastic, brilliant banners of the aurora borealis shot across the frosty ...
— Girlhood and Womanhood - The Story of some Fortunes and Misfortunes • Sarah Tytler

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

... trice. The 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)

... once arched up its back and gave a friendly little answering mew. Ruth wondered where it came from. It was ugly, she thought, but it seemed a pleasant cat and glad to be noticed. She rubbed its head gently. It felt hard and rough like Nurse's old velvet bonnet; there was ...
— The Kitchen Cat, and other Tales • Amy Walton

... "Mew, mew," said the pussy cat; which was, "I don't know the way; but give me some, and I will take you to the dog, and ...
— Harper's Young People, July 20, 1880 - An Illustrated Weekly • Various

... bird may scarcely break the silence. But pause a while, or loiter quietly about, and your presence stimulates him to do his best. He peeps quizzically at you from beneath the branches, and gives a sharp feline mew. In a moment more he says very distinctly, who, who. Then in rapid succession follow notes the most discordant that ever broke the sylvan silence. Now he barks like a puppy, then quacks like a duck, then rattles like a kingfisher, then squalls ...
— Wake-Robin • John Burroughs

... 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 so nervous. She ...
— The Light in the Clearing • Irving Bacheller

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

... 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 — Gwynn is an honorable name, of true old British extraction — I thought the gentleman ...
— The Expedition of Humphry Clinker • Tobias Smollett

... with twisted and gnarled knots 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 adventurers ...
— Vikings of the Pacific - The Adventures of the Explorers who Came from the West, Eastward • Agnes C. Laut

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

... 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

... were the 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 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

... the 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 and ...
— The Coral Island - A Tale Of The Pacific Ocean • R. M. Ballantyne

... 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

... the amazement of the guests who had heard Genovese out of doors, when he began to bray, to coo, mew, squeal, gargle, bellow, thunder, bark, shriek, even produce sounds which could only be described as a hoarse rattle,—in short, go through an incomprehensible farce, while his face was transfigured with rapturous expression ...
— Massimilla Doni • Honore de Balzac

... you think that will fetch her, 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

... boldly; "out of Paris! with a howling mob at our heels causing the authorities to take double precautions. And above all remember, friends, that our rallying cry is the shrill call of the sea-mew thrice repeated. Follow it until you are outside the gates of Paris. Once there, listen for it again; it will lead you to freedom and safety at last. Aye! Outside Paris, by the grace ...
— I Will Repay • Baroness Emmuska Orczy

... 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 ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 11 • Robert Kerr

... 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 ...
— Susan - A Story for Children • Amy Walton

... looked at me with flashing eyes and a mocking smile, while Mr. Foster indulged himself with extorting a long and plaintive mew from the poor ...
— The Doctor's Dilemma • Hesba Stretton

... 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

... the moan Of the billows' foam, Laving with surges thy silv'ry beach! Night's dewy eye, The sea-mew's lone cry, Witness my ...
— Poems • Mary Baker Eddy

... depths of brine, Where grows the green grass slim and tall, Among the coral rocks; And I drink of their crystal streams, and eat The year-old whale, and the mew; And I ride along the dark blue waves On the sportive dolphin's back; And I sink to rest in the fathomless caves, Beyond ...
— Traditions of the North American Indians, Vol. 1 (of 3) • James Athearn Jones

... pray? "The cat will mew, the dog will have his day." Let them bark on! who heeds their currish note Knows not the world—they howl, for ...
— The English Spy • Bernard Blackmantle

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

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

... 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, ...
— The Travels of Marco Polo, Volume 2 • Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa

... down to Dulwich to hear what Sam Weller had to say; but the high-level railway went through Mr. Pickwick's parlour two months ago, and it is of no use writing to Sam, for, as you are well aware, he is no penman. And, indeed, Sir, little good will come of any writing on the matter. "The cat will mew, the dog will have its day." You yourself, excellent as is the greater part of what you have said, and to the point, speak but vainly when you talk of "probing the evil to the bottom." This is no sore ...
— A Letter Book - Selected with an Introduction on the History and Art of Letter-Writing • George Saintsbury

... against the wires. A troop of girls With arms linked paused to watch the game of bowls; And now they flocked around the cage, while one With rosy finger tempted the horny beak To bite. Close overhead a sea-mew flashed Seaward. Once, from an open window, soft Through trellised leaves, not far away, a voice Floated, a voice that flushed the cheek of Drake, The voice of Bess, bending her glossy head Over the broidery frame, in a ...
— Collected Poems - Volume One (of 2) • Alfred Noyes

... attention was 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

... shout into the teeth of the gale, and her cry was driven back into her own ears as weak as the mew of a kitten. ...
— Ruth Fielding at Snow Camp • Alice Emerson

... "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 ...
— Hyperion • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

... fresh colour from the passionate human sentiment with which it is imbued. "I love the birds" sings Gwalchmai "and their sweet voices in the lulling songs of the wood"; he watches at night beside the fords "among the untrodden grass" to hear the nightingale and watch the play of the sea-mew. Even patriotism takes the same picturesque form. The Welsh poet hates the flat and sluggish land of the Saxon; as he dwells on his own he tells of "its sea-coast and its mountains, its towns on the forest border, its fair ...
— History of the English People, Volume II (of 8) - The Charter, 1216-1307; The Parliament, 1307-1400 • John Richard Green

... 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

... tiger is quite different from that of the female. The male calls with a hoarse harsh cry, something between the grunt of a pig and the bellow of a bull; the call of the tigress is more like the prolonged mew of a cat much intensified. During the pairing season the call is sharper and shorter, and ends in a sudden break. At that time, too, they cry at more frequent intervals. The roar of the tiger is quite ...
— Sport and Work on the Nepaul Frontier - Twelve Years Sporting Reminiscences of an Indigo Planter • James Inglis

... woman seemed to listen to the strokes of the oars; her dead eyes rested immovably on the sea. A sea-mew passed close to her in its flight. "That was a bird!" said she. "Is there no one here ...
— O. T. - A Danish Romance • Hans Christian Andersen

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

... told, the five Heads (so to speak) of the undertaking being Clark (our Chief), John Mew (commander), Aubrey Maitland (meteorologist), Wilson (electrician), and myself ...
— The Purple Cloud • M.P. Shiel

... Captain was really not surprised, he had been almost expecting it—a mew, a peevish, plaintive mew. "I won't open that door," said the Captain. The complaint was repeated. "Poor beast!" murmured the Captain. "Shut up in that—in that—deuce take it, in that what?" His hand shot up to the top ...
— Captain Dieppe • Anthony Hope

... the door-way with her dolly on one arm and her kitten hanging over the other. Kitty didn't look comfortable, but she bore up bravely, only once in a while giving a plaintive mew. Carry gazed into the bright ...
— St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, Vol. 5, October 1878, No. 12 • Various

... from three to four miles in circuit. Their sides are steep, but their height is inferior to that of the main. The largest is the lowest. The smaller isles are little more than large lumps of rock, of which that named by Captain Cook the mew stone is the southernmost. Their aspect, like that of the main, bespeaks extreme sterility; but, superior to the greater part of it, they produce a continued covering of brush; and upon the sloping sides of some of their gullies are a few stinted, ...
— An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, Vol. 2 • David Collins

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

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

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

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

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

... 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, I favored the opinion that ...
— Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson - Volume I • Thomas Jefferson

... 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 ...
— The Complete Works of Whittier - The Standard Library Edition with a linked Index • John Greenleaf Whittier

... 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

... his heel and went back into the room, Marguerite remaining motionless beside the open window, where the soft, brine-laden air, the distant murmur of the sea, the occasional cry of a sea-mew, all seemed to mock ...
— The Elusive Pimpernel • Baroness Emmuska Orczy

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

... 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, ...
— The Devil's Pool • George Sand

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

... specific vibrations, and 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 snarl of the tiger. Perhaps I ought to add, for the benefit ...
— The World I Live In • Helen Keller

... 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

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

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

... 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 ...
— Two Knapsacks - A Novel of Canadian Summer Life • John Campbell

... only remorse; and what murderer 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 ...
— Serge Panine • Georges Ohnet

... 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 and gull, ...
— Rowena & Harold - A Romance in Rhyme of an Olden Time, of Hastyngs and Normanhurst • Wm. Stephen Pryer

... about it," she said. "But shall I tell you something? There are no two cats in the world that cry like that. Well, on the night of the murder I also heard the cry of the Bete du bon Dieu outside; and yet she was on my knees, and did not mew once, I swear. I crossed myself when I heard that, as if ...
— The Mystery of the Yellow Room • Gaston Leroux

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

... cloak and hood, and had my hand on the bar of the back door, when a piteous mew from the bedroom reminded me of the existence of poor Pussy. I ran in, and huddled the creature up in my apron. Before I was out in the passage again, the first shock from the beam fell on ...
— The Queen of Hearts • Wilkie Collins

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

... milk for the cats to drink outside. Six came into the kitchen to get their supper there. One after another they sprang up on the table, one more proud and overbearing than the other. Each cat ate without condescending to make a single mew. "Cat of my heart," said Morag to the first, when he had finished drinking his milk. "Cat of my heart! How noble you would look with this red around your neck." She held out a little satchel in which a ...
— The King of Ireland's Son • Padraic Colum

... through 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 ...
— The Life and Perambulations of a Mouse • Dorothy Kilner

... 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

... Again he looked at his watch. It was nearly two o'clock. He wondered absently where the day had gone, that it was so late. He had not the least idea as to the times and seasons of the Port Willis trolley-cars, but he directly arose to make ready. As he did so he heard a distressful mew, and the black kitten which Marie had essayed to carry with her that morning made a leap to the window-sill. The little animal looked in, fixed his golden, jewel-like eyes on the man, and again uttered an appealing, accusatory wail. Then she rubbed her head with a pretty, caressing motion ...
— The Debtor - A Novel • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

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

... our 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 ...
— 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

... cage in which was a Fox. The gentleman with the 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

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

... specimen. Be careful, dear. Strike a circle and come up behind him. When you're ready, mew like a cat-bird and I'll let him catch a glimpse of me. And as soon as he begins to—to rubber," she said, with a haughty glance at the unconscious angler, "steal up and net him, and I'll come across and help tie ...
— The Gay Rebellion • Robert W. Chambers

... come out where it was light. In that far corner of the cavern it was dark, and 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 ...
— Nomads of the North - A Story of Romance and Adventure under the Open Stars • James Oliver Curwood

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

... 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 his delight ...
— Hindu Tales from the Sanskrit • S. M. Mitra and Nancy Bell

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

... 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 to her. But there was something odd in the ...
— Hawthorne and His Circle • Julian Hawthorne

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

... blissfully purring after this unusual treat they heard a plaintive "Mew" from the ground close by, and peering down saw a strange cat that had evidently entered through the open window, as they had done. He looked hungry and wistful, while they had just had a delicious meal ...
— The Book of the Cat • Mabel Humphrey and Elizabeth Fearne Bonsall

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

... join me? So I said I will join you in the jaw in a minute if you don't shut your mouth and then he quited down a little, but every few minutes he would have another swell idear and once he asked me could I imitate animals and I said no so he says he could mew like a cow and he had heard the boshs was so hard up for food and they would rush out here thinking they was going to find a cow but it wouldn't be no cow but it would be a horse ...
— The Real Dope • Ring Lardner

... "Perhaps a 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

... in what sort of key the herders on the Keowee talk? They may 'moo' like the cow, or 'mew' like the cat! I should be in danger of losing half that was said. And that is what these varlets here in the station know right well. It must seem but a mere bit of bombast on my part. It could never be seriously countenanced—unless I had an interpreter. ...
— The Frontiersmen • Charles Egbert Craddock

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

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

... 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 cut ...
— Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 (of 2) • John Roby

... 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," the kittie said. ...
— Sammie and Susie Littletail • Howard R. Garis

... asking questions of everybody, and 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

... in that darn ol' Sunday gown Ye'd think a grasshopper could knock 'er down. An' she laughs kind o' sick—like a kitten's mew— Ye wouldn't think 'twas ...
— A Man for the Ages - A Story of the Builders of Democracy • Irving Bacheller

... 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

... brine. For, where the distant prospect fading dies, And sea and land seem mingling with the skies, A massy tower of polish'd marble rose; There dwelt the fair physician of his woes: Nogiva was the name the princess bore; Her spouse old, shrewd, suspicious evermore, Here mew'd his lovely consort, young and fair, And watch'd her with a dotard's bootless care. Sure, Love these dotards dooms to jealous pain, And the world's laugh, when all their toil proves vain. This lord, howe'er, ...
— The Lay of Marie • Matilda Betham



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



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