▪ I. yowl, n.
(jaʊl)
Also 5–6 ȝowle, 7 youle, 9 youl.
[f. next.]
An act of yowling; a prolonged loud cry, now esp. of a dog or cat.
| c 1450 Holland Howlat 53 He grat grysly grym, and gaif a gret ȝowle. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems xxi. 69 Pitt obscure, Quhair ȝoulis ar hard with horreble stevin. 1622 Mabbe tr. Aleman's Guzman d' Alf. i. 36 He brake forth into such a Youle of laughing, that he was ready to burst. 1820 Hogg Tales & Sk., Sheph. Cal. i, A dog..gae two or three melancholy yowls. a 1877 J. Ballantine in Mod. Scott. Poets Ser. iii. (1881) 31 At your feet wi' kindly yowl, Whurrs your wee catty. 1917 P. MacGill Gt. Push i, The cats raise their primordial, instinctive yowl. |
▪ II. yowl, v.
(jaʊl)
Forms: 3 ȝoȝele, ȝuhele, ȝule, 4–5 (6 Sc.) ȝoule, ȝowle, 5–6 yowle, 5–7 youle, 5, 7, 9 youll, 7, 9 youl, 9 yowll, 8– yowl.
[ME. ȝoȝele, ȝoule, ȝuhele, ȝule. Cf. ME. ȝaule, yawl v.1 and gowl (ON. gaula).]
1. a. intr. To cry out loudly from pain, grief, or distress; also said of the howling of dogs and various wild animals, the ‘wauling’ of cats, and (formerly) of the hooting of owls, the cooing of doves.
| a 1225, a 1250 [see yowling vbl. n.]. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints iv. (Jacobus) 102 Þe fendis furth can fare..Ȝouland and cryand in þe ayre. c 1380 Wyclif Sel. Wks. I. 200 Whanne þei [sc. wolves] bigynen to ȝoule, þei turnen her snowte to hevene ward. c 1410 Master of Game (MS. Digby 182) 66/60 A bolde hounde shulde neuer pleyne nor yowle, but if he were oute of þe reghtes. 1483 Cath. Angl. 427/2 To ȝowle, vlulare. 1513 Douglas æneis iv. viii. 112 The nycht oule.. was hard ȝoule With langsum voce. 1535 Coverdale Ps. lviii. [lix.] 14 Let them go to & fro, & runne aboute the cite, youlinge like dogges. 1549 Compl. Scot. vi. 39 The turtil began for to greit, quhen the cuschet ȝoulit. 1674 Ray N.C. Words 22 To Greet and Yowl, Cumberland, to weep and cry. 1728 Ramsay Robt., Richy, & Sandy 24 His dog its lane sat yowling on a brae. 1820 Marmaiden of Clyde vii. in Edin. Mag. VI. 422 An' the wilcat yowl't through its dowie vowts. 1848 Thackeray Dr. Birch (1849) 18 She is always croaking, scolding, bullying—yowling at the housemaids, snarling at Miss Raby [etc.]. 1862 Sala Seven Sons I. vii. 161 The Blenheim spaniel..yowled fractiously. 1896 Baring-Gould Broom-Squire i, [The child] yowlin' enough to tear a fellow's nerves to pieces. |
| transf. 1513 Douglas æneis ii. viii. 84 The whole howsis ȝowlit and resoundit For womenting of ladyis and wemen. |
† b. Applied to loud singing or shouting. Obs.
| 1509 Barclay Shyp of Folys (1874) I. 297 Yowlynge with theyr folysshe songe and cry. c 1630 Song ii. in De Foe Mem. Cavalier (1840) Notes 323 Yoffing, crying, youlling, yelling, Lyk ane citie swyne summonds out with an horne. |
2. trans. To express by yowling; to utter with a yowl.
| 1842 J. Wilson Chr. North I. i. 13 The chained mastiff in the yard yowls his admiration. 1889 Ruskin Præterita III. iv. 175 However fast the clergyman may gabble, or the choir-boys yowl, their psalms. |
Hence ˈyowler, one who or that which yowls (in quot. 1935 applied to a crooner).
| 1935 Wodehouse Blandings Castle v. 120 He's a yowler, and girls always fall for yowlers. They have a glamour. 1966 ‘L. Lane’ ABZ of Scouse 120 Yowler, a cat. 1979 Tucson (Arizona) Citizen 20 Sept. 10a/3 In every airport I stand, sip, sleep, weep, wail and yowl in, I find an equal number of other standers, sippers, sleepers, weepers, wailers and yowlers. |