From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpawpaw1 /pɔː $ pɒː/ ●●○ noun [countable] 1 HBAan animal’s foot that has nails or claws a lion’s paw2 informalHBH someone’s hand – used when you are annoyed or angry Keep your filthy paws off me!
Examples from the Corpus
paw• Snyde came closer, reached out a paw and touched Whillan's flank strangely, casting a lingering look at it.• The cat rolled on to her side, stretched, put a paw across her eyes.• His hide is removed with head and paws attached and arranged upon a rack to look alive.• The researchers injected formalin into animals' paws and watched how often they licked the wound.• He sat down and pushed at the lid with one filthy paw.• Our dog cut his paw on a piece of metal.• I stared at the eyes of a blind toy, holding its paw.• They can speak, via a whirring mechanical voice box, and they have mechanical human hands rather than paws.• There were paw marks on the windows.• Get your paws off my pizza!pawpaw2 verb [intransitive, transitive] 1 HBAif an animal paws a surface, it touches or rubs one place several times with its pawpaw at The dog’s pawing at the door again – let him out. His horse pawed the ground.2 informalSYSEXY to feel or touch someone in a rough or sexual way that is offensive He’d had too much to drink and started pawing me.→ See Verb tableExamples from the Corpus
paw• I watched a cat pawing at butterflies in the courtyard.• He paws at me, licks me, nuzzles me and I talk back.• The ground was freshly pawed by deer, and the smooth black earth showed the criss-cross pattern of their hoof prints.• Never, not even when some aroused, overweight, ugly Casanova had tried to paw her.• There were guys coming in almost every night, groping and pawing me just because I served them a beer or two.• First he drank too much, then he started pawing me.• The horses pawed, shaking their manes and switching tails, and harness jangled.• The cat turned and looked at them, and it pawed the air.Origin paw1 (1200-1300) Old French poue