From Middle English ha (interjection). Compare Old Norse há (interjection), Middle Low German ha, hā (interjection), Old High German aha, hei (interjection).
Meanings
An imitation of laughter, often used to express scorn or disbelief. Often doubled or tripled (haw haw or haw haw haw).
You think that song was good? Haw!
The bitter laugh laughs at that which is not good, it is the ethical laugh. The hollow laugh laughs at that which is not true, it is the intellectual laugh. Not good! Not true! Well well. But the mirthless laugh is the dianoetic laugh, down the snout — Haw! — so. 1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, [Paris]: Olympia Press, →OCLC:
An intermission or hesitation of speech, with a sound somewhat like "haw"; the sound so made.
Hums or haws. 1720, William Congreve, An Impossible Thing:
From Middle English ha (interjection). Compare Old Norse há (interjection), Middle Low German ha, hā (interjection), Old High German aha, hei (interjection).
Meanings
To stop, in speaking, with a sound like haw; to speak with interruption and hesitation.
From Middle English hawe, from Old English haga (“enclosure, hedge”), from Proto-Germanic *hagô (compare West Frisian haach, Dutch haag, German Hag (“hedged farmland”), Norwegian Bokmål hage (“garden”)), from Proto-Indo-European *kagʰom (compare Welsh cae (“field”), Latin caulae (“sheepfold, enclosure”), cohum (“strap between plowbeam and yoke”), Russian кош (koš, “tent”), коша́ра (košára, “sheepfold”), Sanskrit कक्ष (kakṣa, “curtain wall”)), from *kagʰ- 'to catch, grasp' (compare Welsh cau (“to clasp”), Oscan kahad (“may he seize”).
Meanings
Fruit of the hawthorn.
The kanary-nut may be considered equal to a hazel-nut, but I have met with nothing else superior to our crabs, our haws, beech-nuts, wild plums, and acorns; fruits which would be highly esteemed by the natives of these islands, and would form an important part of their sustenance. 1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 103:
(historical) A hedge.
(obsolete) Something that has little value or importance; a whit or jot.
wele not leaue a man of lawe,
Nor a paper worth a hawe,
And make him worſe than a dawe,
That ſhall ſtand againſt Iacke Strawe. 1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […], →OCLC, Act II:
cmn 嗬 (an instruction for a horse or other animal to turn towards the driver) · pt ôô (an instruction for a horse or other animal to turn towards the driver) · nl linksom (an instruction for a horse or other animal to turn towards the driver) · fr dia (an instruction for a horse or other animal to turn towards the driver) · de hü (st) (an instruction for a horse or other animal to turn towards the driver) · sk čihí (an instruction for a horse or other animal to turn towards the driver) · uk соб (an instruction for a horse or other animal to turn towards the driver) · ro hăis (an instruction for a horse or other animal to turn towards the driver) · pl wiśta (an instruction for a horse or other animal to turn towards the driver) · cs čehý (an instruction for a horse or other animal to turn towards the driver) · pt ôa (an instruction for a horse or other animal to turn towards the driver)