meow

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the characteristic crying sound made by a cat

   A faint meow came from beneath the porch.

2. 2
   verb

   to make the characteristic cry of a cat

   The kitten began to meow when it heard the food tin open.

3. 3
   intj

   used to represent or imitate a cat's cry

   "Meow," the child said as she pretended to be a cat.

An onomatopoeic alteration of the older mew, whose Middle English forms also imitated a cat's cry. Spellings such as meow and miaow, partly influenced by French miaou, became widespread in the nineteenth century.

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