Also 5, 9 dial. sowl. [f. the sb. Cf. OE. sáwlian (= ON. and Icel. sálask, MSw. siälas) to die, whence SOULING vbl. sb. 1.]
1. trans. † a. To endow or endue with a soul. Also fig. Obs. rare.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Sec. Nun’s T., 329. The goost that fro the fader gan procede Hath sowled hem with outen any drede.
1646. N. Lockyer, Serm., 4. All that was said is resum’d and souled, as I may say.
b. To inspire or animate. rare–1.
1891. C. Dawson, Avonmore, 50. Joy souled the day, and love was seen In winter’s storms.
2. intr. To go about collecting doles, properly on the eve of All Souls’ Day. Chiefly in the phr. to go (a-)souling.
a. 1779. Tollet, in Brand’s Pop. Antiq. (1813), I. 309. On All Saints Day, the poor people … go from parish to parish a Souling, as they call it.
1820. Wilbraham, Cheshire Gloss., App. s.v., To go a souling, is to go about as boys do, repeating certain rigmarole verses, and begging cakes or money, in commutation for them, the Eve of All Souls’ Day.
1883. Miss Burne, Shrops. Folk-lore, 381. Up to the present time in many places, poor children, and sometimes men, go out ‘souling.’
3. To capture or catch souls. rare–1.
1825. J. Wilson, Noct. Ambr. (1855), I. 3. Fiends ride forth a-souling For the dogs of havoc are yelping and yowling.
Soul, obs. or dial. form of SOWL v.
