gaw

• IPA^(key): /ɡɔː/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔː

From Middle English gowen (“to stare”), from Old Norse gá.

gaw (third-person singular simple present gaws, present participle gawing, simple past and past participle gawed)

1. (obsolete) to stare or gape

Minced oath for God.

gaw

1. An expletive, expressing disbelief, horror, or disdain
   • 1908, H. G. Wells, “IX: On Goat Island”, in The War in the Air:

     "Gaw!" he whispered, "I don' like dead bodies some'ow! I'd almost rather that chap was alive."

• (expressing disbelief): fiddlesticks, get out of town, pull the other one; see also Thesaurus:bullshit
• (expressing horror or shock): gorblimey, Jeebus, Jiminy Cricket, 'sblood; see also Thesaurus:wow
• (expressing disdain): feh, pfaugh, pshaw, pooh; see also Thesaurus:bah

• geegaw
• weather-gaw

• AGW, AWG, GWA, WAG, WGA, wag

From ig-agaw.

gaw

1. an address to a cousin

From Dutch gauw (“quickly”).

gaw

1. quick, fast

• gawgaw