BAWL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does bawl mean? 

• BAWL (verb)
  The verb BAWL has 3 senses:

1. shout loudly and without restraint

2. make a raucous noise

3. cry loudly

  Familiarity information: BAWL used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BAWL (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they bawl    ... he / she / it bawls   
Past simple: bawled   
Past participle: bawled   
-ing form: bawling   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Shout loudly and without restraint

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

bawl; bellow

Hypernyms (to "bawl" is one way to...):

shout (utter in a loud voice; talk in a loud voice (usually denoting characteristic manner of speaking))

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something

Sentence example:

Sam and Sue bawl

Sense 2

Meaning:

Make a raucous noise

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

bawl; yawp

Hypernyms (to "bawl" is one way to...):

howl; roar (make a loud noise, as of wind, water, or vehicles)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

bawler (someone who communicates vocally in a very loud voice)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Cry loudly

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Context example:

Don't bawl in public!

Hypernyms (to "bawl" is one way to...):

cry; weep (shed tears because of sadness, rage, or pain)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

bawler (a loud weeper)

 Context examples 

But Tom seemed as if he did not understand them, and bawled out again, “How much will you have? Shall I throw it all out?”

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

“The king's messenger,” he bawled as he came up to them.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

We know them, and talk of them in the fleet, though they may never be bawled in the streets of London.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

As we watched him he looked across at a boy who was bawling out the latest edition of the evening paper, and running over among the cabs and busses, he bought one from him.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But the mingled reality and mystery of the whole show, the influence upon me of the poetry, the lights, the music, the company, the smooth stupendous changes of glittering and brilliant scenery, were so dazzling, and opened up such illimitable regions of delight, that when I came out into the rainy street, at twelve o'clock at night, I felt as if I had come from the clouds, where I had been leading a romantic life for ages, to a bawling, splashing, link-lighted, umbrella-struggling, hackney-coach-jostling, patten-clinking, muddy, miserable world.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

About two o’clock the following morning, his daughter, who slept with her window open, heard a most fearful yell from that direction, but it was no unusual thing for him to bawl and shout when he was in drink, so no notice was taken.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

When Lady Russell not long afterwards, was entering Bath on a wet afternoon, and driving through the long course of streets from the Old Bridge to Camden Place, amidst the dash of other carriages, the heavy rumble of carts and drays, the bawling of newspapermen, muffin-men and milkmen, and the ceaseless clink of pattens, she made no complaint.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

When they came to the parson’s house, Tom slipped through the window-bars into the room, and then called out as loud as he could bawl, “Will you have all that is here?”

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)