Yowl v.

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.  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. sb.].

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.