Definition

1. Noun:

   • The foot of a four-legged animal, especially one with claws: A paw is the foot of a mammal, such as a cat, dog, or bear, that typically has claws and pads.
   • (Informal) A human hand: Used informally, often humorously or disparagingly, to refer to a person's hand.

2. Verb:

   • To touch or handle clumsily, roughly, or with too much familiarity: To use the hands in an awkward, fumbling, or overly intimate way.
   • To scrape or strike with a paw: For an animal, to touch, scrape, or strike something with its paw.

Examples of Usage

• Noun:

  • The dog held up its injured paw.
  • Get your dirty paws off my clean clothes! (informal, referring to hands)

• Verb:

  • The drunk man tried to paw at the bartender.
  • The cat pawed at the string dangling from the chair.

Advanced Usage

• "to make a paw of someone": (informal, dated) to make a fool of someone.
• "in the lion's paw": in a dangerous or powerful grip.

Variants and Related Words

• Pawed (adj): Having paws or foot-like parts.
  • A pawed animal.
• Pawer (n): One who paws.
• Pawky (adj): This is a different, unrelated word meaning shrewd or cunning, chiefly in Scottish and Northern English usage.

Synonyms

• Noun (animal foot): foot, pad, trotter.
• Verb (handle clumsily): maul, grope, fumble.

Related Phrasal Verbs

• Paw through: To search through something clumsily with the hands.
  • He pawed through the drawer looking for his keys.

Related Idioms

• Have a cat's paw: To be used as a tool by someone else; from the fable where a monkey uses a cat's paw to pull chestnuts from a fire.
  • He realized he was just a cat's paw in their scheme.

Noun

1. the (prehensile) extremity of the superior limb
   • he had the hands of a surgeon
   • he extended his mitt
2. a clawed foot of an animal especially a quadruped

Verb

1. touch clumsily
   • The man tried to paw her
2. scrape with the paws
   • The bear pawed the door