howlet dial.
(ˈhaʊlɪt, Sc. ˈhulət)
Forms: 5 howlott, -lat, 6– howlet. (Also 6 hulet, 7 houlet, 9 dial. hoolet, hulote, hullat, -et, ullet.) See also owlet.
[app. a. F. hulotte, in 16th c. hulote, a word of diminutive form, of which the stem appears to be the same as in Ger. eule, MLG. ûle, perh. altered under the influence of huer to hoot: cf. the synonym huette.]
An owl, owlet.
| c 1450 Holland Howlat 48, I sawe ane Howlat, in haist, vndir ane holyne. c 1450 Cov. Myst. (Shaks. Soc.) 179 Do howlott howtyn hoberd and heyn, Whan here barnys blede undyr credyl bende. 1513 Douglas æneis xii. xiii. 168 Quhilk we a litil howlet cleip, or owle. 1549 Cheke Hurt Sedit. (1641) 5 Why, be yee Howlets and Bats, that yee cannot look on the light? 1570 Levins Manip. 88/15 An Hulet or oule, vlula. 1601 Holland Pliny I. 156 Eies they haue red like the houlets. 1684 Bunyan Pilgr. ii. 189, I am also as poor as a Howlet. 1820 Scott Ivanhoe xxvii, That St. Withold's of Burton is a howlet's nest worth the harrying. 1828 Craven Dial., Hullet, Hullat, an owl. |