bawl

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.

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

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Homophone: ball
• Rhymes: -ɔːl

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

   • 1900, T. Jenkins Hains, Mr. Trunnell, Mate of the Ship "Pirate"‎^[1]:

     He jumped upon the saddle with another yell as he pushed the machine before him, and the next instant was whirling down the thoroughfare with the rapidity of an express train, bawling for people to "Stand clear!"

   • 1902, Robert W. Chambers, The Maid-at-Arms‎^[2]:

     "I'm lord of this manor!" he bawled. "I'm Patroon Varick, and I'll do as I please!"

   • 1930, Dashiell Hammet, The Maltese Falcon, New York, N.Y.; London: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, →OCLC, page 140:

     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 I, London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, page 80:

     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

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.

• ALBW, LBWA

bawl

1. to complain
2. to negotiate (often a price)

   jam

   bawl dung

   • 2024, Busy Signal, “#Ofcourse”:

     I am a Jamaican / Of course, If yuh eva tell mi di cost / Mi a guh bawl dung e price

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• IPA^(key): /bɔl˧/

bawl

1. blunt

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