haw

1 of 5

noun (1)

ˈhȯ How to pronounce haw (audio)
Synonyms of hawnext
1
: a hawthorn berry
2
: hawthorn

haw

2 of 5

noun (2)

: nictitating membrane
especially : an inflamed nictitating membrane of a domesticated mammal

haw

3 of 5

interjection

—often used to indicate a vocalized pause in speaking

haw

4 of 5

verb (1)

hawed; hawing; haws

intransitive verb

1
: to utter the sound represented by haw
hemmed and hawed before answering
2
: equivocate
The administration hemmed and hawed over the students' demands.

haw

5 of 5

verb (2)

hawed; hawing; haws

imperative verb

—used as a direction to turn to the left compare gee entry 3

intransitive verb

: to turn to the near or left side

Examples of haw in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Noun
Trees and shrubs that provide berries for birds and other wildlife include anaqua, hackberry, mulberry, Texas persimmon, loquat, yaupon holly, possum haw holly, nandina, ligustrum, Carefree Beauty rose, Burford holly, beauty bush, Mexican plum, wax myrtle, figs, blackberries and Chinese pistache. — Calvin Finch, San Antonio Express-News, 23 Jan. 2026 Rewriting society’s decision-making Unlike biased pundits who hem, haw and hedge their bets, Web3 prediction markets cut through noise, bequeathing a signal that feeds into pricing mechanisms themselves. — Atharva Gosavi, Interesting Engineering, 17 Sep. 2025
Verb
Normally, these sorts of acrobatics early on are a bad omen for the season, but Robyn, Tia, and Stacey are clearly willing to cut through the hemming and hawing and force the group to address conflicts head-on. — Shamira Ibrahim, Vulture, 26 Oct. 2026 After much hemming and hawing, Diplo selects an orange flower to purchase and posts a video to his Instagram stories in which the man holds up his shopping bag printed with a website for his wares. — Ian Servantes, Footwear News, 20 Oct. 2026 See All Example Sentences for haw

Word History

Etymology

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

First Known Use

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

Time Traveler
The first known use of haw was before the 12th century

Phrases Containing haw

Rhymes for haw

See All Rhymes for haw

Browse Nearby Words

havoc
haw
Hawaii
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Haw.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/haw. Accessed 27 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation

Kids Definition

haw

1 of 3 verb
ˈhȯ How to pronounce haw (audio)
1
: to make a sound (as \ə\) which is usually written as haw
hemmed and hawed before answering
2
: to hesitate in speaking

haw

2 of 3 noun
: a pause in speaking filled by the sound which is usually written as haw

haw

3 of 3 imperative verb
—used as a direction to turn left

Medical Definition

haw

noun
ˈhȯ How to pronounce haw (audio)
: nictitating membrane
especially : an inflamed nictitating membrane of a domesticated mammal

More from Merriam-Webster on haw

Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for haw

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about haw

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of milieu

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World

Why do we 'bury the lede?'

'Za' and 9 Other Words to Help You Win at SCRABBLE
See More

Popular

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
different halloween monsters in silhouette
A Monstrous Vocab Quiz Words That Go Bump in the Night
See All