paw
/pɔː
/noun
1An animal’s foot having claws and pads.The feet of the throne are modeled after large catlike paws without claws....
- Access to water is always recommended, as is staying off the asphalt, which can burn an animal's paws.
- The cat looked up from its toys and stretched out its paws to claw at the ragged arm of an old chair.
Synonyms
foot, pad;
forepaw, hind paw
1.1 informal A person’s hand: the Internet is the easiest way to get your paws on mucky pictures...
- Get your filthy little paws on CD-ROMs featuring these sirens of British media culture.
- The filthy maggot has his paws all over her prized weapon!
- 'Get your filthy paws off her,' I think as anger sweeps through my body but it is shortly replaced with a desire.
verb [with object]
1(Of an animal) feel or scrape with a paw or hoof: the horse rose up, its forelegs pawing the air [no object]: young dogs may paw at the floor and whine...
- Jonah saw several of the creatures pawing at the air and shaking their heads.
- The glorious creature pawed the ground with it's silver hooves and snorted deep of the cold air.
- Juno looked around and saw that Riddle was right, for the two horses were pawing at the ground in agitation.
1.1 informal (Of a person) touch or handle clumsily or lasciviously: some overweight Casanova had tried to paw her...
- I wander round looking like a lost child pawing things for a while, and then panic and pick up something which neither fits nor suits me.
- I wasn't about to let people go around pawing a holy artifact like it was just any old piece of junk.
- Kassa sat on the sofa nervously twiddling her thumbs; Vlad sat beside her lazily pawing her hair.
Synonyms
poke, handle roughly/carelessly/clumsily, finger, thumb, pull, grab, maul, manhandle, mangle, mess up
fondle, feel, maul, molest
informal grope, feel up, touch up, goose
Origin
Middle English: from Old French poue, probably of Germanic origin and related to Dutch poot.