haw

haw

1. (international standards) ISO 639-2 & ISO 639-3 language code for Hawaiian.

• (Received Pronunciation, UK) IPA^(key): /hɔː/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• (General American, US) IPA^(key): /hɔː/
• Rhymes: -ɔː

From Middle English ha (interjection). Compare Old Norse há (interjection), Middle Low German ha, hā (interjection), Old High German aha, hei (interjection).

haw

1. An imitation of laughter, often used to express scorn or disbelief. Often doubled or tripled (haw haw or haw haw haw).

   You think that song was good? Haw!

   • 1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Grove Press, published 1959, →OCLC:

     The bitter laugh laughs at that which is not good, it is the ethical laugh. The hollow laugh laughs at that which is not true, it is the intellectual laugh. Not good! Not true! Well well. But the mirthless laugh is the dianoetic laugh, down the snout — Haw! — so.

2. An intermission or hesitation of speech, with a sound somewhat like "haw"; the sound so made.
   • 1720, William Congreve, An Impossible Thing:

     Hums or haws.

• (an imitation of laughter): In the US, haw is rare (it was more used in the past), with ha being more common.

haw (third-person singular simple present haws, present participle hawing, simple past and past participle hawed)

1. To stop, in speaking, with a sound like haw; to speak with interruption and hesitation.

• hum and haw, hem and haw

From Middle English hawe, from Old English haga (“enclosure, hedge”), from Proto-Germanic *hagô (compare West Frisian haach, Dutch haag, German Hag (“hedged farmland”), Norwegian Bokmål hage (“garden”)), from Proto-Indo-European *kagʰom (compare Welsh cae (“hedge”), Latin caulae (“sheepfold, enclosure”), cohum (“strap between plowbeam and yoke”), Russian кош (koš, “tent”), коша́ра (košára, “sheepfold”), Sanskrit कक्ष (kakṣa, “curtain wall”)), from *kagʰ- 'to catch, grasp' (compare Welsh cau (“to clasp”), Oscan kahad (“may he seize”).

haw (plural haws)

1. Fruit of the hawthorn.

   Synonym: hawthorn berry

2. (historical) A hedge.
3. (obsolete) Something that has little value or importance; a whit or jot.
   • 1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […], Act II:

     wele not leaue a man of lawe,
     Nor a paper worth a hawe,
     And make him worſe than a dawe,
     That ſhall ſtand againſt Iacke Strawe.

Assumed to be interjectory, but compare Old English hawian (“to observe, look”)[1]

haw

1. An instruction for a horse or other animal to turn towards the driver, typically left.

   Coordinate term: gee

haw (third-person singular simple present haws, present participle hawing, simple past and past participle hawed)

1. (of an animal) To turn towards the driver, typically to the left.

   Antonym: gee

   This horse won't haw when I tell him to.

2. To cause (an animal) to turn left.

   Antonym: gee

   You may have to go to the front of the pack and physically haw the lead dog.

• “haw”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Late Middle English (denoting a discharge from the eye), of uncertain origin. Perhaps related to Etymology 2 above, describing a berry.[1]

haw (countable and uncountable, plural haws)

1. (countable, anatomy) The third eyelid, or nictitating membrane.
2. (uncountable) A disease of the nictitating membrane.

• WHA, Wah, wah, wha

Borrowed from Burmese ဟော (hau:).

haw

1. to preach

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

From Sanskrit हल (hala), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰh₁ol-. Cognate with Lithuanian žúolis.

haw

1. plough

• IPA^(key): /aw/

haw

1. Alternative form of hawn: here

haw

1. Alternative form of hawe

From Old Norse haf, from Proto-Germanic *habą.

• IPA^(key): [hɑ́ː]

haw n (definite singular haweð, plural haw)

1. sea

• (Standard Zhuang) IPA^(key): /haɯ˨˦/
• Tone numbers: haw¹
• Hyphenation: haw

haw (Sawndip forms 𰁴 or 𫣞 or ⿰土黑, 1957–1982 spelling həɯ)

1. fair; market

Borrowed from Chinese 虛 (MC xjo).

haw (1957–1982 spelling həɯ)

1. weak; feeble