▪ I. bawl, v.
(bɔːl)
Forms: 6 baull, bool, 6–7 ball, baule, 6–8 baul, 5– bawl.
[Found only from 15th c. Prob. ad. med L. baulā-re to bark as a dog, ‘latrare, et est proprie canum’ (Du Cange); also in an 11th or 12th c. list of cries of animals ‘canum latrare, seu baulare, vulpium gannire,’ etc. The Promp. Parv. has ‘baffyn as houndys, baulo, baffo, latro,’ and the earliest English instances refer to dogs. But cf. Icel. baula, Sw. böla to low like a cow, pointing to an ON. vb. *baula. f. baula a cow. In any case, originally applied to the voice of animals; hence more or less vituperative as applied to human utterance.]
† 1. intr. To bark or howl as a dog, to give mouth or tongue as an animal.
| [c 1440 Promp. Parv. 20 Baffynge or bawlynge of howndys, baulatus, baffatus.] 1563 Becon New Catech. (1844) 390 Singing-men..in churches..may roar, bool, bleat, yell, grunt. 1556 J. Heywood Sp. & Flie xxxv, At my blunte behauour barke ye or ball ye. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. i. iii. i. ii. (1651) 183 A barking dog that alwayes bawls, but seldome bites. 1675 Hobbes Odyss. (1677) 166 The other three [dogs] ran bawling forth. 1753 [see bawling vbl. n.] |
2. a. gen. To shout at the top of one's voice, with a loud, full, protracted sound; to cry loudly and roughly, to bellow. Often emphasized by out.
| 1570 Levins Manip. /12 Baull, to cry, vociferare. 1583 Stanyhurst æneis ii. (Arb.) 67, I belcht owt blasphemye bawling. 1622 Heylyn Cosmogr. iii. (1682) 104 The cryers kept a bauling in the steeples..for the people to come to Church. 1782 Cowper Gilpin 104 And ev'ry soul cried out, well done, As loud as he could bawl. 1872 Thackeray Christmas Bks. 8, I heard him bawling out to Gregory in the passage. |
b. Const. against, at, for.
| 1618 B. Holyday Juvenal 240 We baul, More for our gold, then for a funeral. 1708 Swift Abol. Chr. Wks. 1755 II. i. 88 To bawl one day in seven against the lawfulness of those methods. 1863 Kingsley Water-Bab. vii. 267 They all bawled at her at once. |
3. a. trans. To utter with bawling; to shout at the top of one's voice. (Often with out.)
| 1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, ii. ii. 27 Those that bawl out the ruins of thy linen. 1709 Steele & Swift Tatler No. 66 ¶1 To bawl out, My Beloved; and the Words Grace! Regeneration! Sanctification! 1836 Marryat Japhet lxvi, Bawling out his ditty. 1850 Thackeray Pendennis xxvii. 257, ‘I will fling you out of window’..bawled out Mr. Pen. |
b. To ‘cry’ for sale, as a hawker.
| a 1745 Swift (J.), It grieved me when I saw labours which had cost so much, bawled about by common hawkers. |
c. With out: To reprove or reprimand loudly or severely. orig. U.S. Also ball out (see ball v.5).
| 1908 R. Beach Barrier xvii. 270 If you'll go back on your word like this you'll ‘bawl me out’ before the priest. 1917 C. Mathewson Sec. Base Sloan xv. 203 You'll get bawled out when you pull a boner. Ibid. xviii. 239 Wayne thought that the manager's ‘bawling out’ that forenoon had done good. 1922 H. L. Foster Adv. Trop. Tramp ix. 119 In private Griffis bawled me out for my rashness. 1933 New Statesman 18 Mar. 331/2 All the plats du jour were ‘off’ and we bawled out the head waiter. 1942 L. A. G. Strong Unpractised Heart xii. 82 He bawled him out. Gave him such a tongue lashing as the louse will remember to his dying day. |
Hence bawl-out n. a reprimand. U.S.
| 1926 J. Black You can't Win vi. 70, I..don't want to..give myself a bawl-out in front of the woman. |
▪ II. bawl, n.
(bɔːl)
[f. prec. vb.]
A shout at the top of one's voice, a loud prolonged rough cry.
| 1792 Wolcott (P. Pindar) Acad. Ode Wks. 1812 II. 509 Proud of a loud, clear, melancholy bawl. |