paw
/pɔ:/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
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.
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
- the (prehensile) extremity of the superior limb
- he had the hands of a surgeon
- he extended his mitt
- a clawed foot of an animal especially a quadruped
Verb
- touch clumsily
- The man tried to paw her
- scrape with the paws
- The bear pawed the door