Other forms: paws
A paw is the soft foot of an animal that walks on four legs — a cat's, a dog's, a bear's, a lion's. Muddy paws across a clean floor; a dog laying one paw on your knee until you notice it.
Paws have pads underneath and claws at the front. Hooves are not paws, human feet are not paws, and a bird has a foot. The verb means to scrape or push with a paw: the horse pawed the ground, the cat pawed at the bedroom door at five in the morning. Said of a person it turns nasty — to paw at someone is to touch them in a way they did not invite. Paw print is the mark left behind, and in playful speech a hand becomes a paw: get your paws off my sandwich.
1nounpawThe foot of a four-legged animal, with soft pads and claws.
“The dog left muddy paw prints the length of the hall.”
2verbscrapeTo scrape or push at something with a paw or hoof.
“The pony pawed the ground while it waited.”
3verbtouchTo touch someone roughly when they do not want it.
“He hated the way strangers pawed at the baby.”
paw is an animal's foot.
Paw came through Middle English pawe from Old French poue, and behind that a Vulgar Latin word pauta, where the trail goes cold. One line of guesswork leads to Frankish words for putting, poking and planting, which would make paw a distant relative of put. Its cousins are clear enough across the North Sea: Dutch poot, German Pfote.
Middle English
pawe
English, today
paw
Built from
From Middle English pawe. From Middle English pawe, from Old French poue, poe, from Vulgar Latin pauta. Further origin unknown, perhaps from Frankish pōta, from Frankish pōtōn (“to put, stick, plant”), from Proto-Germanic putōną, whence also Old English potian (“to push”), pȳtan (“to put out, poke out”). See more at put. a doublet of pote and put and putt. Cognate with Dutch poot, poten (“to plant”), Low German Pote, German Pfote, Icelandic pota (“to stick”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA