English edit

 
A glass growler (jug for beer).

Etymology edit

From growl +‎ -er. Sense "jug" is 19th century American slang, of uncertain origin.

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

growler (plural growlers)

 
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  1. A person, creature or thing that growls.
  2. (historical, slang) A horse-drawn cab with four wheels.
    • 1883 October 16, London Daily Telegraph:
      He had evidently studied the driver of a London growler, and produced a good sound readable type of man.
    • 1887, A. Conan Doyle, chapter 7, in A Study in Scarlet, part 2:
      The ordinary London growler is considerably less wide than a gentleman's brougham.
    • 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 254:
      Lew pulled his socks from a jacket pocket, grabbed his own shoes, and together they proceeded to the street and into a growler, and were off.
  3. A small iceberg or ice floe which is barely visible over the surface of the water.
    • 2002, Joseph O'Connor, Star of the Sea, Vintage, published 2003, page 152:
      A great ‘growler’ iceberg was sighted this afternoon at a distance of approximately half a mile; the size of a large London house, more or less.
    • 2007 November 24, Matthew Taylor, The Guardian:
      As the cruise ship Explorer was picking its way through the Antarctic sea ice, it hit what experts believe was a "growler" - a huge iceberg shorn from the Antarctic ice shelf.
  4. (informal, Canada, US, Australia) A kind of jug, often with a handle, used to carry beer and preserve carbonation.
    • 1940, Eugene O'Neill, The Iceman Cometh, act 1:
      [] their favoring breeze has the stink of nickel whiskey on its breath, and their sea is a growler of lager and ale []
    • 2002, Louis M. Soletsky, 100 Years of Medicine, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 104:
      This container was a round lidded tin with a handle and was colloquially called a growler. [] to get daddy or mommy a growler of beer, which was, by the way, approximately a quart.
  5. (dialect, UK, Yorkshire) A pork pie.
    • 2008 August 22, Christina McDermott, The Guardian:
      Now, on first impression, a pork pie - or a ‘growler’ if you're from Yorkshire - looks like a delicious snack.
  6. (Britain, slang) The vulva.
    • 2007, Cesca Martin, Agony Angel, Troubadour Publishing, pages 125–6:
      On our first meeting he'd asked me if I dyed my hair. I told him I did and his follow up[sic] question had been the much under rated[sic], "What colour's your growler then?"
  7. (US, dialect) A fish of the perch family, abundant in North American rivers, so named from the sound it emits.
  8. A device for checking electrical equipment for short circuits etc.
    • 1962, United States. Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training, Trade and Industry Publication (issue 3, page 32)
      Includes voltmeters, ammeters, circuit testers, armature tester (external growler), field tester, (internal growler), coil and condenser tester, etc.
    • 2013, Donny Petersen, Donny's Unauthorized Technical Guide to Harley-Davidson, 1936 to Present:
      A Growler is one of the most versatile tools for electric motor service, whether a starter motor or a generator. The growler gets its name because of a growling noise it emits upon finding an electrical short.