mewing

What it means

A facial technique where you press your tongue flat against the roof of your mouth, supposedly to sharpen your jawline over time. Online it's become a meme too, with people "mewing" by staying silent and pointing at their jaw instead of answering a question.

Examples

• I've been mewing for a month, jury's still out on the jawline.
• He just kept mewing instead of answering the teacher.
• Stop mewing and actually talk to me, bro.
• Mewing tutorials are all over my feed right now.

Where it comes from

Named after orthodontist Dr. John Mew, who promoted the tongue-posture theory; the term spread through looksmaxxing communities and exploded into mainstream meme culture on TikTok around 2022-2023.

Related slang