verb (colloquial).—Properly to make a noise like cats at rutting time; to woo, to ‘make love.’ The quotations show the process of transition from the old figurative usage of the word, to be ‘in heat,’ ‘to be lecherous,’ to the current sense. For synonyms, see FIRKYTOODLE.
1599. NASHE, Lenten Stuffe [GROSART, Works, V., 284]. The friars and munkes CATERWAWLD from the abbots and priors to the nouices.
1700. CONGREVE, The Way of the World, Act i., Sc. 9. An old aunt, who loves CATTERWAULING better than a conventicle.
1771. SMOLLETT, The Expedition of Humphry Clinker, l. 64. I hope you have worked a reformation among them [servant-maids], as I exhorted you in my last, and set their hearts upon better things than they can find in junkitting and CATERWAULING with the fellows of the country.
1884. HAWLEY SMART, From Post to Finish, ch. xvii. From what I hear, you came to Riddleton fooling after my daughter. Now, I’ll have no CATERWAULING of that sort.
