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Glite Dictionary
🐱 A soft cat sound 🐱 To cry like a cat 🕊️ A small gull 🔒 To confine
to mew

to mew

9.9
To shut someone in a small room and not let them leave
  • verb
  • /mjuː/
  • Archaic
translation icon : recluir
  • The far end, where the gyrfalcon was mewed, lay deep in shadow.

Examples

  • He found his lost puppy mewed behind the old shed, hidden from view.

  • Look, a lot of people have bad dreams, and they don't go mewing around about them.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • The keys mewed in Rik's pocket, soft as reindeer bells, and I glanced from his crotch to his quizzical smile.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • The tiny kitten was mewed in a box, waiting patiently for someone to take her home.

  • In the story, the princess was mewed in a tower, longing for freedom and adventure.

Synonyms

to shut away
vsto mew
3 5.5

Keep people and things in a place where they cannot leave or be seen

describes shutting up in a small enclosed place in older or literary language
to cloister
vsto mew
3 8.6

To shut someone or yourself away from the outside world

signifies confining in a small enclosed space rather than voluntary seclusion
to pen up
vsto mew
2 6.0

Keep animals or people in a small area

refers to confining in a small enclosed space in archaic or literary usage
to mure
vsto mew
  • Archaic
9.9

To shut someone or something inside walls

is an archaic literary term for confining in a small enclosed space
to shut in
vsto mew
5.1

Surround something completely so it cannot get out or move

means confining in a small space, used in older literary contexts

Compounds

mew gull
  • US
9.6

A medium-sized seabird with a grey back and white belly found in Europe, Asia, and northeastern North America

sea mew
  • UK
9.9

A medium white and grey bird that lives by the sea and eats fish

How Confined

to imprison
  • Formal
178 4.2
to mew
  • Archaic
9.9
to restrain
86 4.6

Surface Forms

mew infinitive
mewed past
mewed past participle
mewing present participle
mews third person singular

Etymology

Mew meaning 'to confine' comes from the old word for the small cages, called mews, where hawks were kept while they changed their feathers; to be 'mewed' was to be shut in those cages. That's why mew came to mean 'shut up' or keep inside.