Examples of haw in a Sentence
Angie Han, The Hollywood Reporter, 7 Dec. 2023
No more lengthy hemming and hawing by the pitcher.
—Bill Goodykoontz, The Arizona Republic, 28 Mar. 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'haw.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Noun (1)
Middle English hawe, going back to Old English haga, weak masculine noun, formally identical with haga "fence, fenced enclosure, hedge" (whence Middle English hawe in same sense), going back to Germanic *hagan- (whence also Middle Dutch hage "thornbush," haghe "thornbush forming a border," Old Icelandic hagi "enclosed field, pasture"), derivative of a base *hag- seen also in *haga-, masculine a-stem, whence Old English hæg- "enclosure" (in placenames), Old High German hag "palisade, enclosed land"; in *hagi-, masculine i-stem, whence Old English hege "hedge, fence, boundary wall" (whence Middle English heye, haie, in part reflecting also Anglo-French haie "hedge, fence"), Middle Low German hege; in *hagjō hedge entry 1; in *hagna-, masculine a-stem, derivative with the suffix of appurtenance -na-, whence Old Saxon hagan "thornbush, buckthorn," Middle Dutch haghen "enclosure," Old High German hagan "thornbush, plants of the genera Crataegus and Rhamnus"; Germanic hag- going back to dialectal Indo-European *kagh- "enclosure," whence also Celtic *kagi̯o- (whence Welsh cae "hedge, hedgerow, field," Cornish ke "hedge, ditch," Old Breton caiou glossing munimenta "defensive works, barrier," Breton kae "hedge, field") and probably Latin caulae, plural only, "railing, lattice forming a barrier" (going back to *kahelā)
Note: Old English haga in the sense "hawthorn berry" may have been extracted from hagaþorn hawthorn or an unattested compound with berie berry entry 1. Germanic *hag- "enclosure," with its numerous derivative stems, appears to have been intimately connected with the thorny plants such as Crataegus used to form hedges. — The northwest Indo-European etymon *kagh- "enclosure" has been associated with a verb of the same form meaning approximately "grasp, enclose," which is hypothetically the source of Umbrian kukehes "you (or s/he) will reach," Oscan kahad "s/he takes," as well as some of the forms of Welsh cael "to get, receive" (see Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2. Auflage, p. 342). The Lexikon shows this form as both *kagh- and *ḱagh-, as *kagh- violates an Indo-European root structure constraint (though comparable forms in a satem language are lacking); a stricter laryngealist notation would be *ḱh2gh-. Also connected with this verb is Latin cohum "hollow in the middle of a yoke"—see inchoate. See also quay.
Noun (2)
Middle English howe, hawe "morbid excrescence in the eye," of uncertain origin
Verb (1)
derivative of haw entry 3
Verb (2)
probably from haw entry 3 used as a command to an animal
Noun (1)
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Noun (2)
1523, in the meaning defined above
Interjection
1600, in the meaning defined above
Verb (1)
1632, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Verb (2)
1777, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense
Phrases Containing haw
Dictionary Entries Near haw
Cite this Entry
“Haw.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/haw. Accessed 20 Apr. 2024.
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Kids Definition
haw
1 of 3 verbhaw
2 of 3 nounhaw
3 of 3 imperative verb
Medical Definition
haw
noun
More from Merriam-Webster on haw
Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for haw
Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about haw
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