pūngāwerewere
1. (noun) spider.
Ka kite ia i reira i te pūngāwerewere e tohe ana kia pikitia te tara o te whare (TWMNT 21/4/1874:103). / There he saw a spider trying to climb the wall of the house.
See also pūngāwere
pūwerewere
1. (noun) spider.
Koia nei te tīmatanga o ngā mea katoa i te ao nei, ahakoa tarutaru, rākau, kōhatu, ngā ika, ngā manu, ngā ngārara, ngā pāpā, ngā pūwerewere, ngā mū, ngā pūrerehua (W 1971:213). / That is the beginning of all things in this world, whether it be vegetation, trees, rocks, fish, birds, reptiles, geckos, spiders, insects or moths.
2. (noun) foliate design in carving.
Ko te pūwerewere. He tāruarua te noho whakahāngai o ētahi hahae e toru, e whā rānei, ki roto i tētahi awaawa āhua whānui nei (RTA 2014:210). / The pūwerewere carving design. A repetition of three or four cuts lying at right angles in a quite wide groove.
3. (noun) hyperbola.
Ko te pūwerewere te āhua o te mata ina tapahia tētahi koeko, kāore e whakarara te tapahanga ki te rōnaki o te koeko. Koia anō te āhua o tētahi momo kauwhata motuhake (TRP 2010:218). / The hyperbola is the shape of the face produced when a cone is cut so as not to be parallel with the slope of the cone. It is also the shape of a special type of graph.
toi huarewa
1. (noun) suspended way - explanations vary as to what exactly this is but it seems to refer to the way that Tāne and Tāwhaki ascended to the heavens, or sometimes the whirlwind path to the uppermost of the heavens. Some versions say that it was a spider's web hanging down from the heavens.
I whakamārama mai a nehe mā i piki ētahi mā te toi huarewa ki te toi o ngā rangi, arā ki tō runga rawa o ngā rangi tūhāhā (TTT 1/8/1923:6). / The old men and women explained that some climbed via the suspended way to the uppermost heaven, that is the the highest of the spaced heavens.
2. (noun) spider web.
He māwhai pūngāwerewere i hangā hei kākahu (TW 14/4/1877:131). / Spider webs made into a garment.
3. (noun) fishing net.
4. (noun) māwhai, dodder, Cassytha paniculata - leafless plant parasitic on herbs and shrubs forming tangled masses with stems yellowish green up to 3m long. Found in northern North Island in lowland scrub.
5. (noun) ambush vine, Sicyos mawhai - an herbaceous climber with stems up to 10 m long and 3-5 tendrils. Has vanished from much of its past range over the last 50 or so years. Currently it remains common only on the less accessible northern offshore islands (e.g. Three Kings, Poor Knights and Mokohīnau Islands) and on the Kermadec Islands. In suitable conditions white flowers are produced throughout the year.
2. (noun) Polynesian rat, Rattus exulans - originated in Southeast Asia but spread throughout Polynesia and Fiji. Eats seeds, fruit, leaves, bark, insects, earthworms, spiders, lizards, and avian eggs and hatchlings.
Ko ētahi o ngā ingoa Māori mō ēnei kiore ko te pou-o-Hawaiki, ko muritai (Te Ara 2011). / Some of the Māori names for these rats are pou-o-Hawaiki and muritai.
3. (noun) pilferer.
He muritai kai roto i tēnei karaehe (Ng 1993:339). / There is a pilferer in this class (Ng 1993:339).
