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waul. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
waul, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
waul in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
waul you have here. The definition of the word
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English
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Etymology
From Middle English wraulen, wrawlen (“cry like a cat; roar”). Compare Danish vræle, vråle, Swedish vråla (“to bellow; roar; howl; yell”).
Pronunciation
Verb
waul (third-person singular simple present wauls, present participle wauling, simple past and past participle wauled)
- To wail, to cry plaintively.
c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :Thou know’st, the first time that we smell the air, / We waul, and cry.
1850, Sylvester Judd, Richard Edney and the Governor's Family, page 298:The Catapult wauled, "What if some poor man's dog was saved, — it was his comfort and defence; — he shared with the faithful creature his bread and butter: and when he dies, who watches his grave, — who, if we may so say, sheds a tear for the departed? — who, who, but his dog? […] "
2004, Michael Cisco, The San Veneficio Canon, page 75:A cattish ghost-familiar wauls from a monument's bronze shoulder, seeing him see it, and he shrieks back in its own language, pulling a face so horrible that pedestrians scatter out of his path, their white cottons flapping.
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