Definition of "haw"

haw¹

/hɔː/

interjection
1. An imitation of laughter, often used to express scorn or disbelief. Often doubled or tripled (haw haw or haw haw haw).
  Quotations
  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, Olympia Press
2. An intermission or hesitation of speech, with a sound somewhat like "haw"; the sound so made.
  Quotations
  Hums or haws.
  1720, William Congreve, An Impossible Thing
verb
third-person singular simple present haws, present participle hawing, simple past and past participle hawed
1. To stop, in speaking, with a sound like haw; to speak with interruption and hesitation.

haw²

/hɔː/

noun
plural haws
1. Fruit of the hawthorn.
2. (historical) A hedge.
3. (obsolete) Something that has little value or importance; a whit or jot.
  Quotations
  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 […], Act II

haw³

/hɔː/

interjection
1. An instruction for a horse or other animal to turn towards the driver, typically left.
verb
third-person singular simple present haws, present participle hawing, simple past and past participle hawed
1. (of an animal) To turn towards the driver, typically to the left.
2. To cause (an animal) to turn left.

haw⁴

/hɔː/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural haws
1. (countable, anatomy) The third eyelid, or nictitating membrane.
2. (uncountable) A disease of the nictitating membrane.