paw

See also: Paw and PAW

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: pô, IPA^(key): /pɔː/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔː
• (US) enPR: pô, IPA^(key): /pɔ/
• (cot–caught merger) enPR: pä, IPA^(key): /pɑ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /poː/
• Homophones: poor (non-rhotic, pour–poor merger); pore, pour (non-rhotic, horse–hoarse merger); par (non-rhotic, cot–caught merger, father-bother merger); pa (cot–caught merger, father-bother merger)
• Hyphenation: paw

Etymology 1

A dog's paw.

From Middle English pawe, from Old French poue, poe, from Frankish *pōta (compare Dutch poot, Low German Pote, German Pfote), from Frankish *pōtōn (“to put, stick, plant”) (compare Dutch poten 'to plant'), from Proto-Germanic *putōną (compare Old English potian (“to push”), pȳtan (“to put out, poke out”), Icelandic pota (“to stick”)). More at put.

Noun

paw (plural paws)

1. The soft foot of a mammal or other animal, generally a quadruped, that has claws or nails; comparable to a human hand or foot.

   Synonyms: hand, foot

   Hypernym: extremity

   Holonym: limb

   Meronyms: claw, finger

2. (humorous) A hand.

   Get your grubby paws off my things!

Coordinate terms

• hoof, talon

Derived terms

• bear paw
• Bearspaw
• bear's-paw
• catpaw
• cat's paw
• chicken paw
• fox's paw
• give paw
• kangaroo paw
• monkey's paw
• paddy paw
• paw at
• pawmark
• pawpad
• pawprint
• pawternity leave
• tiger paw

 

Translations

soft foot of an animal

• Afrikaans: poot
• Albanian: putër (sq) f
• Arabic: قَدَم (ar) f (qadam)
• Armenian: թաթ (hy) (tʻatʻ)
• Avar: квачӏ (kʷačʼ)
• Azerbaijani: pəncə (az)
• Belarusian: ла́па f (lápa)
• Bengali: থাবা (bn) (thaba)
• Bulgarian: ла́па (bg) f (lápa)
• Burmese: please add this translation if you can
• Catalan: pota (ca) f
• Chamicuro: kujtu
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 腳／脚 (zh) (jiǎo), 爪 (zh) (zhuǎ), 爪子 (zh) (zhuǎzi), 蹯 (zh) (fán)

• Chukchi: ягыԓгын (jagyḷgyn)
• Czech: packa (cs) f, tlapa (cs) f, tlapka f
• Danish: pote (da) c
• Dutch: poot (nl) m
• Esperanto: piedo (eo)
• Estonian: käpp
• Finnish: tassu (fi), käpälä (fi)
• French: patte (fr) f
• Galician: pouta (gl) f, gadoupa f
• Georgian: თათი (ka) (tati)
• German: Pfote (de) f
• Greek: πόδι (el) n (pódi)
• Hebrew: כַּף (he) f (kaf)
• Hindi: पंजा (hi) m (pañjā)
• Hungarian: mancs (hu)
• Icelandic: loppa (is) f
• Indonesian: cakar (id)
• Ingrian: käpälä, laappa
• Irish: crág f
• Italian: zampa (it) f
• Japanese: 足 (ja) (あし, ashi), 足の裏 (あしのうら, ashi no ura)
• Kazakh: табан (kk) (taban)
• Khmer: ជើង (km) (cəəng)
• Korean: 발 (ko) (bal)
• Kyrgyz: таман (ky) (taman)
• Lao: ຕີນ (lo) (tīn)
• Latin: pēs (la) m, patta f
• Latvian: ķepa f
• Lithuanian: letena f
• Macedonian: ше́па f (šépa)
• Malay: kaki (ms), cakar (ms)
• Middle English: pawe
• Mongolian: тавхай (mn) (tavxaj)
• Navajo: bikeeʼ
• Norn: glomek m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: pote

• Occitan: pata (oc) f
• Ottoman Turkish: پنچه (pençe)
• Persian: پنجه (fa) (panje), پنجول (fa) (panjul)
• Plautdietsch: Poot f
• Polish: łapa (pl) f
• Portuguese: pata (pt) f
• Romanian: labă (ro) f
• Russian: ла́па (ru) f (lápa)
• Scottish Gaelic: spòg f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: шапа f

  Roman: šapa (sh) f

• Slovak: packa f, laba f
• Slovene: tačko n
• Southern Altai: табаш (tabaš)
• Spanish: pata (es) f, zarpa (es) f, garra (es) f, mano (es) m (front), pie (es) m (rear)
• Swedish: tass (sv) c
• Tajik: панҷа (panja)
• Tatar: аяк (tt) (ayak)
• Telugu: పంజా (te) ? (pañjā)
• Thai: ตีน (th) (dtiin)
• Turkish: pati (tr), ayak (tr), pençe (tr)
• Turkmen: penje
• Ukrainian: ла́па f (lápa)
• Urdu: پنجا m (panjā)
• Uyghur: پەنجە (penje)
• Uzbek: panja (uz), oyoq (uz)
• Venetan: sata (vec) f, ẑata (vec) f
• Vietnamese: chân (vi), cẳng (vi)
• Volapük: lufut, nimafut, fut (vo)
• Walloon: pate (wa) f
• Yiddish: לאַפּע f (lape)

Verb

paw (third-person singular simple present paws, present participle pawing, simple past and past participle pawed)

1. (of an animal) To go through something (such as a garbage can) with paws.
2. (of an animal) To gently push on something with a paw.
3. (of an animal) To draw the forefoot along the ground; to beat or scrape with the forefoot.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 39:21:

     He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength: he goeth on to meet the armed men.

4. (by extension) To touch someone in a sexual way.

   Synonym: grope

   • 1997 August 17, Robert Spector, misc.fitness.weights (Usenet):

     IronMan used to be good in this way, back in the '80s. […] They wouldn't subscribe to the old, "Let's put a male bodybuilder with silicone babes pawing him" cover that's mainstay now.

   • 1997 October 26, Amy McWilliams, quoting Verbotene, rec.arts.tv.soaps.abc (Usenet):

     So, Katherine was out with Luke and they were both quite dolled up and swoon-worthy. Katherine fawned all over Luke and pawed him, but to what end? Was Stefan supposed to believe that Luke and Katherine have some sort of a thing going? What was the point of this display from Katherine's perspective?

   • 2002 July 18, Lurker Dave, rec.arts.comics.marvel.universe (Usenet):

     Subtlety is great, but what exactly happened with Jessica and the cop during sex that he locked her up afterwards? Also, what was the item she nicked from his shirt while she pawed him?

   • 2018 February, Robert Draper, “They are Watching You—and Everything Else on the Planet: Technology and Our Increasing Demand for Security have Put Us All under Surveillance. Is Privacy Becoming just a Memory?”, in National Geographic‎^[1], Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 14 June 2018:

     Tonight there are no drug deals, no fights, only the random foolishness of the young and inebriated. They stagger with linked arms down the middle of the street. They paw at each other.

   • 2023 October 6, Ryan Gilbey, quoting Illeana Douglas, “The double life of Rock Hudson: ‘Let’s be frank, he was a horndog!’”, in The Guardian‎^[2], →ISSN:

     He was good-looking, masculine, funny, charismatic and he could dance the cha-cha-cha. And he’s never a brute. He’s flirting with women but he’s not pawing them.

5. (by extension) To clumsily dig through something.
6. (transitive, dated) To flatter.

Derived terms

• paw up

Translations

to go through something

• Finnish: tonkia (fi)

to gently push on something

• Finnish: käpälöidä (fi)
• Japanese: 足で押す (ashi de osu)

to feel or scrape with a paw or hoof

• Czech: škrábat impf, škrábnout pf, hrabat (cs) impf (tlapou, nohou)
• Finnish: kuopia (fi)
• Maori: huke
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: skrape

to touch someone (with the hands) in a sexual way

• Czech: osahávat impf, ohmatávat impf
• Danish: gramse
• Dutch: betasten (nl)
• Finnish: käpälöidä (fi), lääppiä
• French: tripoter (fr), peloter (fr)
• German: betatschen (de), begrapschen (de)
• Polish: macać (pl) impf, pomacać pf, obmacywać (pl) impf, obmacać (pl) pf
• Portuguese: apalpar (pt)
• Russian: тро́гать (ru) impf (trógatʹ), щу́пать (ru) impf (ščúpatʹ), ла́пать (ru) impf (lápatʹ) (colloquial)
• Spanish: manosear (es), sobar (es)
• Walloon: kipôtter (wa)

to clumsily dig through something

• German: befummeln (de)
• Japanese: 穴を掘る (ana o horu), 掘る (ja) (horu)
• Russian: ша́рить (ru) impf (šáritʹ) (intransitive), ры́ться (ru) impf (rýtʹsja) (intransitive), копа́ться (ru) impf (kopátʹsja) (intransitive), рыть (ru) impf (rytʹ) (transitive), копа́ть (ru) impf (kopátʹ) (transitive)

See also

• palpate
• paw off

Etymology 2

The word probably has an origin in baby talk: see ‘pa’.

Noun

paw (plural paws)

1. (nonstandard or rustic) Father; pa.

   Synonyms: pawpaw, pa, papa, father, dad, daddy, pappy

   Hypernym: parent

   Hyponym: step-paw

   Coordinate terms: maw, brother, sis, sissy

Derived terms

• pawpaw

Related terms

• pa

Anagrams

• APW, AWP, PWA, WAP, WPA, wap

Jingpho

Etymology

Borrowed from Burmese ဖော့ (hpau.).

Noun

paw

1. cork

References

• Kurabe, Keita (2016 December 31) “Phonology of Burmese loanwords in Jinghpaw”, in Kyoto University Linguistic Research‎^[3], volume 35, →DOI, →ISSN, pages 91–128

Kashubian

paw

Alternative forms

• pôw

Etymology

Borrowed from Polish paw. Doublet of fau, a form borrowed from German.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpaf/
• Rhymes: -af
• Syllabification: paw

Noun

paw m animal (diminutive pawiã or pawiątkò)

1. peacock (pheasant of one of the genera Pavo and Afropavo)

   Synonym: fau

Further reading

• Jan Trepczyk (1994) “paw”, in Słownik polsko-kaszubski (in Kashubian), volumes 1–2
• Eùgeniusz Gòłąbk (2011) “paw”, in Słownik Polsko-Kaszubski / Słowôrz Pòlskò-Kaszëbsczi‎^[4]
• “paw”, in Internetowi Słowôrz Kaszëbsczégò Jãzëka [Internet Dictionary of the Kashubian Language], Fundacja Kaszuby, 2022

Lower Sorbian

paw

Etymology

Ultimately from Latin pavō. Cognates within Slavic include Upper Sorbian paw, Polish paw, Czech páv, Slovene pav, and Russian павли́н (pavlín).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /paw/

Noun

paw (feminine pawa)

1. peacock (pheasant of one of the genera Pavo and Afropavo)

Declension

Declension of paw

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	paw	pawa	pawy
Genitive	pawa	pawowu	pawow
Dative	pawoju	pawoma	pawam
Accusative	pawa	pawowu	pawy, pawow
Instrumental	pawom	pawoma	pawami
Locative	pawje	pawoma	pawach

Further reading

• Muka, Arnošt (1921, 1928) “paw”, in Słownik dolnoserbskeje rěcy a jeje narěcow (in German), St. Petersburg, Prague: ОРЯС РАН, ČAVU; Reprinted Bautzen: Domowina-Verlag, 2008
• Starosta, Manfred (1999) “paw”, in Dolnoserbsko-nimski słownik / Niedersorbisch-deutsches Wörterbuch (in German), Bautzen: Domowina-Verlag

Polish

paw

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle High German phāwe, from Latin pāvō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpaf/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -af
• Syllabification: paw

Noun

paw m animal (female equivalent pawica)

1. (male) peacock
2. (colloquial) puke; vomit

Declension

Declension of paw

	singular	plural
nominative	paw	pawie
genitive	pawia	pawi
dative	pawiowi	pawiom
accusative	pawia	pawie
instrumental	pawiem	pawiami
locative	pawiu	pawiach
vocative	pawiu	pawie

Derived terms

adjectives

• dumny jak paw
• pawi

 

nouns

• pawiątko
• pawica

 

verbs

• puszyć się jak paw

 

verbs

• chodzić jak paw impf
• puścić pawia pf, puszczać pawia impf

 

Further reading

• paw in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• paw in Polish dictionaries at PWN