▪ I. howling, vbl. n.
(ˈhaʊlɪŋ)
[f. howl v. + -ing1.]
1. a. The uttering of a prolonged wailing cry, as by the dog, wolf, or other animal; the production of a similar sound by the wind or other inanimate agent; the ciphering of an organ.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 250/1 Howlynge of doggys. 1495 Trevisa's Barth. De P.R. xviii. xxv. (W. de W.), Ticius Sabinus hounde..abode wyth the deed body wyth dolefull and sorowfull noyse and howlynge [Bodl. MS. ȝelling]. 1598 Hakluyt Voy. I. 400 Two or three hundred foxes, which make a marueilous wawling or howling. 1687 A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. i. 2 The Isle of Stromboli..I was told that they who were near it heard great howlings, which proceed not from Hell..but from the violence of the Winds. 1735 Somerville Chase iv. 225 His Tail incurv'd He drops, and with harsh broken Howlings rends The poison-tainted Air. 1852 Seidel Organ 45 To remedy the so-called howling or sounding-on of certain pipes, when their respective keys are not pressed down. 1875 [see ciphering vbl. n. 3]. |
b. The emission of howls (howl n. 1 b) by a loud-speaker; undesirable feedback at audio frequencies in an amplifier.
| 1920 Radio Rev. Apr. 356 The resistance R3 and condenser C3 connected to the grid of the selected valve are increased in value until maximum amplification is obtained without ‘howling’. 1939 H. J. Hicks Princ. & Pract. Radio Servicing xiii. 228 Open by-pass condensers across any of the tube elements..will often cause howling. 1953 J. E. Haines Automatic Control of Heating xiv. 340 The variation exhibits a definite rhythm—in a manner analogous to the howling of a telephone when the sound waves from the receiver are fed back to the transmitter. 1966 McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci & Technol. I. 520/2 Suppression of the low frequencies..in rooms that are excessively reverberant..increases the intelligibility of the speech and reduces the possibility of acoustic feedback (howling). |
2. A prolonged wailing outcry of human beings.
| c 1489 Caxton Blanchardyn xliii. 169 Grete crye, noyse, and houlyng made the sarasyns. 1592 Shakes. Rom. & Jul. iii. iii. 48 Banished? O Frier, the damned vse that word in hell: Howlings attends it. 1665 Sir T. Herbert Trav. (1677) 257 But for the greater solemnity, for seven dayes a general howling..was made. 1725 De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 87 A sad lamentation and howling. 1887 A. Müller in Encycl. Brit. XXII. 663/1 The insane howlings hu hu (‘he, he’)..practised by the ‘howling’ Rifá'{iacu}ya [Dervishes]. |
▪ II. ˈhowling, ppl. a.
[f. as prec. + -ing2.]
1. That howls; that utters or produces a prolonged wailing sound. Spec. howling baboon, howling monkey = howler 1 b.
| a 1605 Polwart Flyting w. Montgomerie 195 Where howlring howlets aye doth hant. 1668 H. More Div. Dial. iii. xix. (1713) 217, I believe you mean the howling Quakers, as uncivil as they are. 1769 E. Bancroft Ess. Nat. Hist. Guiana ii. 133 The Howling Baboons, as they are here called, seem to be the animals which are here described by Marcgrave, and which are called by the natives of Brasil, Guereba. Ibid. 135 There is another Monkey, somewhat larger than the howling Monkey, which is covered with long reddish hair. 1802 [see monkey n. 1 b]. 1839 T. Beale Sperm Whale 285 Peals of thunder..followed by a howling blast of wind. 1847 Carpenter Zool. §159 The Myceti, or Howling Monkeys. 1863 H. W. Bates Naturalist on River Amazons I. ii. 72 Morning and evening the howling monkeys make a most fearful and harrowing noise. 1877 [see dervish]. 1887 J. G. Wood Illustr. Nat. Hist. 15 The Howling Monkeys are larger and not so agile as the Spider Monkeys. 1924 C. W. Domville-Fife Among Wild Tribes of Amazons viii. 121 On reaching camp..in the half light it was just possible to see the huddled and impaled body of a furry guaribas, or howling monkey (simia mycetes). 1959 Jrnl. Mammalogy XL. 317 (title) Field observations on a howling monkey society. |
2. Characterized by, or filled with, howling, as of wild beasts or of the wind; dreary. In the Biblical howling wilderness, and derived phrases, the word tends to become merely intensive.
| 1611 Bible Deut. xxxii. 10 He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wildernesse. 1696 tr. Du Mont's Voy. Levant 222 The very Sight of those howling Desarts deterr me. 1728–46 Thomson Spring 13 His blasts obey, and quit the howling hill. 1847 Emerson Poems, Monadnoc Wks. (Bohn) I. 435 Fit the bleak and howling place For gardens of a finer race. 1848 Dickens Dombey iv. (C. D. ed.) 22 Going regularly aloft to bed..in a howling garret remote from the lodgers. 1857 Thoreau Maine W. (1894) 300 Generally speaking, a howling wilderness does not howl; it is the imagination of the traveler that does the howling. |
3. fig. (chiefly slang.) Glaring, very pronounced, ‘screaming’: cf. howler 3. Also, extreme, great (colloq.).
| 1865 Sala in Daily Tel. 25 Nov. 6/6 To risk a very vulgar phrase, a Nawab is ‘a howling swell’ in the East. 1884 Nonconf. & Indep. 7 Aug. 766/3 Those mistakes which are sometimes called ‘howling’ blunders. 1884 ‘Mark Twain’ Huck. Finn xliii. 437 Le's all three slide out of here, one of these nights, and get an outfit, and go for howling adventures amongst the Injuns. 1908 Magnet I. 1, ‘You howling ass!’ shouted Bulstrode. ‘I tell you he's busted my two-guinea camera.’ 1933 Times Lit. Suppl. 27 Apr. 283/4 If his book is not a big, a very big, a ‘howling’ success..but I need offer no ‘if's’. |
4. As adv. In the highest degree. (Cf. screamingly.) colloq.
| 1895 Century Mag. Sept. 678/2 It's howling lonesome at the Mule Deer. 1899 Kipling Stalky 45 He'll be howling drunk to-night. 1928 Sat. Even. Post 4 Feb. 100/4 Glad! You're howling right I'm glad. |
Hence ˈhowlingly adv.
| 1593 Nashe Christs T. (1613) 52 The Owle on the house⁓top, euer-more howlingly, cals for some Corse. |