Mewing
A tongue-posture technique promoted online as a way to sharpen or reshape the jawline, despite a lack of reliable scientific evidence for those claims.
“He posed with his finger over his lips to show that he was mewing.”
Mewing usually refers to holding the tongue against the roof of the mouth in an attempt to create a sharper jawline. It also appears as a school and social-media joke in which someone places a finger over their lips and traces the jaw to suggest they cannot speak because they are mewing.
Mewing is named after British orthodontists John and Mike Mew, who promoted tongue-posture theories intended to influence facial development. The technique spread through online appearance communities during the mid-2010s and became a mainstream meme during the early 2020s.
mew
The verb form, meaning to practice or pretend to practice the tongue-posture technique.
mewing gesture
A finger-over-the-lips and jaw-tracing gesture used to indicate that someone is supposedly too busy mewing to speak.
🤫🧏
An emoji combination commonly used to represent the silent mewing gesture and attention to the jawline.
Does mewing actually reshape the jaw?
Reliable scientific evidence does not support claims that mewing can reshape the jaw or replace professional orthodontic care.
Why do people stay silent while mewing?
The silence is part of a meme gesture implying that speaking would interrupt someone's jawline-improvement routine.
Is mewing related to cats?
No. Despite sounding like the noise a cat makes, the term is named after orthodontists John and Mike Mew.