bawling

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

bawl /bɔl/   v. 

1. to cry or wail loudly and strongly:
   [no object] The baby was bawling all night.
2. to cry out: [no object]
   She bawled down the hallway at me.
   [~ + object]
   The drunk was bawling this song all night.
   [~ + out + object]
   The captain bawled out the orders.
   [used with quotations]
   There was an old woman bawling, "Repent, ye sinners!''
3. bawl out, Informal. to scold vigorously: [~ + object + out] :
   The dean bawled the students out for cheating.
   [~ + out + object]
   The dean bawled out the students who had been caught cheating.

n. [countable]

4. a loud shout or outcry:
   I heard a loud bawl and then silence.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

bawl  (bôl), v.i. 

1. to cry or wail lustily.

v.t. 

2. to utter or proclaim by outcry;
   shout out:
   to bawl one's dissatisfaction; bawling his senseless ditties to the audience.
3. to offer for sale by shouting, as a hawker:
   a peddler bawling his wares.
4. bawl out, [Informal.] to scold vociferously;
   reprimand or scold vigorously:
   Your father will bawl you out when he sees this mess.

n. 

5. a loud shout;
   outcry.
6. a period or spell of loud crying or weeping.
7. Dialect Terms [Chiefly Midland and Western U.S.] the noise made by a calf.

• Gmc; compare Old Norse baula to low, baula cow, perh. a conflation of belja (see bell²) with an old root *bhu-
• Medieval Latin baulāre to bark
• late Middle English 1400–50

bawl′er, n. 
Synonyms

• 1. howl, yowl, squall, roar, bellow.

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

bawl / bɔːl/ verb

1. (intransitive) to utter long loud cries, as from pain or frustration; wail
2. to shout loudly, as in anger

noun

1. a loud shout or cry

Etymology: 15th Century: probably from Icelandic baula to low; related to Medieval Latin baulāre to bark, Swedish böla to low; all of imitative origin

ˈbawler noun

ˈbawling noun