maw1

[maw] /mɔ/
noun
1.
the mouth, throat, or gullet of an animal, especially a carnivorous mammal.
2.
the crop or craw of a fowl.
3.
the stomach, especially that of an animal.
4.
a cavernous opening that resembles the open jaws of an animal:
the gaping maw of hell.
5.
the symbolic or theoretical center of a voracious hunger or appetite of any kind:
the ravenous maw of Death.
Origin
before 900; Middle English mawe, Old English maga; cognate with Dutch maag, German Magen, Old Norse magi

maw2

[maw] /mɔ/
noun, Informal.
1.
mother.
Origin
variant of ma
Examples from the web for maw
  • It carries nostalgia to where sentiment finally engulfs it in its sickly maw.
  • The money then disappears into the general maw of public spending, rather than being used to provide drivers with alternatives.
  • We know without asking that he's searching for the sinister maw of our whirlpool.
  • At last count, roughly a dozen celebrity magazines filled newsstands in a bid to feed the maw of a gossip-hungry public.
  • Apparently the guy had been in several accidents while stuffing his maw.
  • The basking shark's giant, gaping maw makes it look far more dangerous than it is, but it's still a shark.
  • The cavernous maw which had enveloped the players in practice now seemed to be turbulent with life.
  • Second, that fat lip would make it impossible to get anything but the biggest chunks of junk into the bucket's handsome maw.
  • Contrary to myth, the major danger from a tornado is not being sucked into the maw of the storm.
  • We bout to fill that deep white maw what's felt real empty way too long.
British Dictionary definitions for maw

maw

/mɔː/
noun
1.
the mouth, throat, crop, or stomach of an animal, esp of a voracious animal
2.
(informal) the mouth or stomach of a greedy person
Word Origin
Old English maga; related to Middle Dutch maghe, Old Norse magi
Word Origin and History for maw
n.

Old English maga "stomach" (of men and animals; in Modern English only of animals unless insultingly), from Proto-Germanic *magon "bag, stomach" (cf. Old Frisian maga, Old Norse magi, Danish mave, Middle Dutch maghe, Dutch maag, Old High German mago, German Magen "stomach"), from PIE *mak- "leather bag" (cf. Welsh megin "bellows," Lithuanian makas, Old Church Slavonic mošina "bag, pouch"). Meaning "throat, gullet" is from 1520s. Metaphoric of voracity from late 14c.