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Glite Dictionary
🐾 An animal foot ✋ To touch roughly 🐾 To scratch
to paw

to paw

12 6.2
To touch or handle roughly with your hands
  • verb
  • /pɔ/
  • Offensive
translation icon : manosear
  • He kept pawing you all over the dance floor.
  • pawing at the air
  • pawing at her clothes
  • fingers pawing

Examples

  • Gorak staggered into the room, pawing at his helmet.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • Customers would stare at her as they pawed the bread and squeezed its flesh.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • Did you see that drunk tonight trying to paw me?

    Dark Blue (2002)

  • He's going to paw at you until he finds where that blood smell comes from.

    Carrie (2013)

  • And by the way, if you insist upon pawing young men at parties, at least do it in private.

    Lassiter (1984)

  • Murphy kept his head forward, extending his hand over his shoulder, pawing for the meat.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • After tidying up from lunch, he pawed through his card file and dialed an overseas number.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • Diane is being wooed and pawed by a blissful Tommy.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • Two teenagers with long, silky hair stood over one of the trays, pawing through the wares and discussing them with utmost solemnity.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • Did you see that drunk tonight trying to paw at me?

Antonyms

to caress
55 3.4

To touch someone or something gently to show love

to handle with care
4 3.5

To treat someone or something gently to avoid harm

Idioms

on the other paw
  • Informal
9.8

To show a different point in a playful animal way

Compounds

paw print
4 2.0

A mark left by an animal's foot showing claws or pads

pussy's-paw
  • US
1 9.9

A small plant with low stems and closely packed pink flowers like a cat's paw found in forests

bear paw
  • US
7.6

A sweet bun shaped like a bear's paw with almond filling

bear's-paw fern
  • Philippine
9.9

A fern with large leaves that grows on trees in humid places

cat's-paw
  • Jargon
9.9

A rope knot that makes two loops to attach a pulley or hook

cat's-paw
  • Informal
9.9

A person who someone else uses without them knowing

monkey's paw
  • Literature
9.9

A story idea that shows wishes bring unexpected bad results

kangaroo paw
  • Australian
9.1

An Australian plant with long leaves and bright fuzzy flowers shaped like tubes

kangaroo's paw
  • Australian
9.8

An Australian plant with soft, tube-shaped flowers often grown in gardens

pussy-paw
  • US
9.9

A low plant with soft pink flowers in close clusters

How Rough

grope
  • Offensive
6 9.1
to paw
  • Offensive
12 6.2
to touch
∞ 1.0
to handle
328 1.0
to pat
110 1.0

Surface Forms

paw infinitive
pawed past
pawed past participle
pawing present participle
paws third person singular

Etymology

Paw used about people is a picture word: it compares a rough, clumsy touch to being handled by an animal 'paw'. So to paw someone or something means to touch them roughly or awkwardly.