howlet
English
editAlternative forms
editEtymology
editFrom Middle English howlat, howlott etc, either borrowed from French hulotte or formed from Middle English howle (form of oule) + -et. Compare modern owlet.
Noun
edithowlet (plural howlets)
- An owl; an owlet.
- 1855, Robert Browning, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, section XVIII:
- Will the night send a howlet or a bat? / I asked: when something on the dismal flat / Came to arrest my thoughts and change their train.
References
edit- “howlet”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.