maw \maw\,
noun:
1. the symbolic or theoretical center of a voracious hunger or appetite of any kind: the ravenous maw of Death.
2. the mouth, throat, or gullet of an animal, especially a carnivorous mammal.
3. a cavernous opening that resembles the open jaws of an animal: the gaping maw of hell.
I will glut the maw of death, until it be satiated with the blood of your remaining friends.
-- Mary Shelley, "Frankenstein," 1818
The team of seven had been created to browse and graze through all existing writings, and to make a catalog of all that was swept into the team's collective maw.
-- Simon Winchester, "The Professor and the Madman," 1998
Maw comes to us from the Old English maga meaning "stomach." Its figurative use first appeared in the late 1300s.
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