bawl

English

Etymology

A drill instructor bawls at an officer candidate

From Middle English baulen, from Old Norse baula (“to bellow”) and/or Medieval Latin baulō (“to bark”), both from Proto-Germanic *bau- (“to roar”), conflated with Proto-Germanic *bellaną, *ballijaną, *buljaną (“to shout, low, roar”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to sound, roar”). Cognate with Faroese belja (“to low”), Icelandic baula (“to moo, low”), Swedish böla (“to bellow, low”). More at bell.

In Kurdish bolle بۆڵە ("to nag") or ("to growl") ("to cry")

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): [bɔːɫ]
• (US) IPA^(key): /bɔl/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /bɑl/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Homophone: ball
• Rhymes: -ɔːl

Verb

bawl (third-person singular simple present bawls, present participle bawling, simple past and past participle bawled)

1. (transitive) To shout or utter in a loud and intense manner.

   commanders bawling

   • 1929, Dashiel Hammett, The Maltese Falcon, New Yock: Vintage Books (Random House, published 1992, →ISBN, page 117:

     Spade took two long steps and caught Effie Perine by the shoulders. "She didn't get there?" he bawled into her frightened face

2. (intransitive) To wail; to give out a blaring cry.

   Coordinate terms: (cattle sense) croon, bellow, low, moo

   children bawling

   cattle bawling

   • 1859, George Meredith, chapter 5, in The Ordeal of Richard Feverel. A History of Father and Son. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC:

     Why did you bawl out just as I was aiming? Who can aim with a fellow bawling in his ear? I've lost the birds through it.

3. (intransitive) To weep profusely.

   children bawling

   mourners bawling

Derived terms

• bawl-baby
• bawler
• bawl off
• bawl one's eyes out
• bawl out
• outbawl

Translations

to shout or utter in a loud and intense manner

• Czech: řvát (cs) impf, křičet (cs) impf
• Dutch: schreeuwen (nl)
• Finnish: huutaa (fi), karjua (fi)
• French: hurler (fr)
• German: schreien (de), brüllen (de), grölen (de)
• Italian: gridare (it), urlare (it)
• Latin: obvāgiō
• Maori: hāparangi, whakapakari, pararē, whakapakari, tīwaha
• Ottoman Turkish: چاغرمق (çağırmak)
• Russian: ора́ть (ru) (orátʹ), крича́ть (ru) (kričátʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian: vikati (sh)
• Spanish: gritar (es), gritonear (es)
• Swedish: vråla (sv), gorma (sv), gasta (sv)
• Turkish: bağırmak (tr)
• Ukrainian: волати (volaty), кричати (kryčaty)

to wail; to give out a blaring cry

• Finnish: ulvoa (fi)
• French: hurler (fr)
• German: heulen (de), brüllen (de)
• Maori: whakapakari, auē
• Ottoman Turkish: چاغرمق (çağırmak), اوكورمك (öğürmek)
• Russian: реве́ть (ru) (revétʹ), вопи́ть (ru) (vopítʹ)
• Spanish: plañir (es), llantear
• Turkish: ağlamak (tr)
• Ukrainian: горлати (horlaty), галасувати (halasuvaty)

to weep profusely

• Finnish: pillittää (fi)
• Spanish: plañir (es), llantear
• Ukrainian: ревіти (revity)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Bulgarian: ^{(please verify)} викам (bg) (vikam), ^{(please verify)} крещя (bg) (kreštja), ^{(please verify)} рева (bg) (reva)
• Norman: ^{(please verify)} brailli (Jersey)
• Serbo-Croatian: ^{(please verify)} derati se (sh)
• Woiwurrung: ^{(please verify)} marr-roong

Noun

bawl (plural bawls)

1. A loud, intense shouting or wailing.
   • 1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard:

     […] that clear soprano, in nursery, rings out a shower of innocent idiotisms over the half-stripped baby, and suspends the bawl upon its lips.

Translations

a loud, intense shouting or wailing

• Catalan: baladreig (ca) m
• Czech: řev (cs) m, křik (cs) m
• Finnish: karjunta (fi)
• German: Grölen n
• Maori: pararētanga
• Spanish: alarido (es) m, grito (es) m

Anagrams

• ALBW, LBWA

Zou

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɔl˧/

Adjective

bawl

1. blunt

References

• Lukram Himmat Singh (2013) A Descriptive Grammar of Zou, Canchipur: Manipur University, page 41