Maw
WordNet
noun
(1) Informal terms for the mouth
WiktionaryText
Etymology 1
Old English maga, from Germanic *magē-, from Indo-European *mak- ‘bag, belly’. Cognate with Dutch maag, German Magen, Swedish mage; and (from Indo-European) with Welsh megin ‘bellows’, Russian мошна ‘pocket, bag’, Lithuanian mãkas ‘purse’.
Noun
- the stomach, especially of an animal
- 1667: So Death shall be deceav'd his glut, and with us two / Be forc'd to satisfie his Rav'nous Maw. — Milton, Paradise Lost, Book X
- the upper digestive tract (where food enters the body), especially the mouth and jaws of a ravenous creature.
- 1818: To save poor lambkins from the eagle's maw — Keats, Endymion
- any great, insatiable or perilous opening.