gaw

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɡɔː/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɡɔ/, (cot–caught merger) /ɡɑ/
• 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 gape or stare.

• gawk

Minced oath for God.

gaw

1. An expletive expressing disbelief, disdain, or horror
   • 1907, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “On Goat Island”, in The War in the Air: […], London: George Bell and Sons, published 1908, →OCLC:

     "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

• 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