Other forms: bawling, bawls, bawled
To bawl is to cry or shout very loudly. A toddler in a supermarket, a sergeant across a parade ground.
It splits neatly into two: bawling on its own is crying without restraint, and bawling somebody out is shouting at them furiously. Both are loud and neither is dignified. It suits children and anger, and it is a good deal less sympathetic than weep or sob. Take care with the spelling, since ball is a different word entirely and the two sound the same.
Bawling is bellowing. Old Norse baula meant to bellow like a cow and Medieval Latin baulō meant to bark, so the word has always been about animal noise.
Proto-Germanic
*bau- — to roar
Medieval Latin
baulō — to bark
Old Norse
baula — to bellow
Middle English
baulen
English, today
bawl
Built 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.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Man Called Ove, A Song of Ice and Fire
First appears in chapter 24 of A Man Called Ove.
Practise this word