Also wouf, wowff. Imitation of a gruff abrupt bark of a dog; also transf. (Cf. WHOOF.)
1804. Tarras, Poems, 59 (Jam.). Curs began to wouff an’ bark.
1839. J. Ballantine, in Whistle-Binkie, Ser. II. 26. The wowff o’ the colley.
1859. H. Kingsley, G. Hamlyn, xxv. Every now and then … he [sc. a dog] would discharge a ‘Woof,’ like a minute-gun at sea.
1885. Rider Haggard, K. Sol. Mines, iv. Presently … came a loud ‘woof, woof!’ ‘That’s a lion,’ said I.
1918. B. Cable, Air Men o’ War, ii. 14. He looked up and out a moment as there came to his ear, dully but unmistakably above the roar of the engine, the hoarse ‘woof’ of a bursting anti-aircraft shell.
