MEW  . (I) An imitative word, also spelled miaow, representing the cry of a

cat or of sea-birds . The name mew, usually sea-mew, as applied to the Lanus canus, or common sea-gull, is, according to Skeat, also imitative . As the name of the sea-bird it appears in Du. meeuw, Ger . Mowe, and other languages . (2) (Through Fr. muer, from Lat. mutare, to change), a term originally applied in French to the moulting of a hawk or falcon, and then to the caging of the bird during that period; thus " to mew up " has come to mean to confine . The English word chiefly survives in the plural form mews, applied to a stable-yard, coach-houses, stalls for horses, and living accommodation, found in narrow streets in large towns . This use was due to the Royal Mews at Charing Cross, where the royal hawks were kept from 1377 to 1537, when the building became the royal stables .