bawl
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Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.
bawl
- /bɔːl/ UK
- /boːl/ British, Southern, Standard
- /bɔl/ Scotland
- /baːl/ Northumbria
- /bɔl/
- /bɑl/ cot caught merger
- /boːl/ Australia, New Zealand
Sounds like ball, (cot–caught merger, father-bother merger) Basle · Rhymes with -ɔːl
Where it comes from
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.
verb bawls · bawling · bawled
- To shout or utter in a loud and intense manner. commanders bawling
- To wail; to give out a blaring cry. children bawling
- To weep profusely. children bawling
noun bawls
- A loud, intense shouting or wailing. […] that clear soprano, in nursery, rings out a shower of innocent idiotisms over the half-stripped baby, and suspends the bawl upon its lips.
