mewl

mewling; mewls; mewled

To mewl is to cry in a feeble way, like a tired baby or a sick cat. The pitiful sound of kittens as they mewl for their distracted mother is heartbreaking.

There's a pitiful quality when someone mewls, a weakness and vulnerability to the soft sound, which usually characterizes the cry of a baby or young animal. Shakespeare used it in his famous "All the world's a stage" speech from As You Like It, describing an infant "mewling and puking in the nurse's arms." Mewl is imitative, one of those words formed by mimicking the sound they describe.