Other forms: growling, growls, growled
To growl is to make a low rough rumble deep in the throat. A dog does it at the gate before it decides whether to bark — head down, ears back, the sound coming from somewhere behind the teeth.
People growl too. You can growl a reply at someone who woke you, and the word then means a short, low, unfriendly way of speaking. Machines and weather borrow it: an engine growls on a cold morning, thunder growls behind the hills. And an empty stomach growls, which is the oldest picture of all. The noun works the same way — a low growl from under the table. Keep it apart from snarl, which shows teeth, and from bark, which is loud and sudden; a growl is quiet, long and a warning.
1verbgrowlTo make a low rough rumbling sound in the throat, the way an angry animal does.
“The dog growled at the postman and would not move.”
synonyms: snarl
2verbunfriendlyTo say something in a low, rough, unfriendly voice.
“He growled a few words about the noise and shut the window.”
3verblongTo make a long low rumbling noise, as an engine, thunder or an empty stomach does.
“My stomach growled all through the meeting.”
4nounsoundA low rough rumbling sound.
“There was a growl from under the table, then silence.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
Also accepted in games: snarl
Growl comes through Middle English groulen, which was first used of the bowels rumbling, and reaches back to Proto-Germanic gruljaną, to make a sound, to growl or rumble, and to a Proto-Indo-European root for mumbling and murmuring. It is probably imitative: the word is doing the noise.
Proto-Indo-European
*gʰer- — to make a noise; to mumble, murmur; to rattle; to grind; to rub, stroke
Proto-Germanic
*gruljaną — to make a sound; to growl, grumble, rumble
Old English
gryllan
Frankish
*grullen
Old French
groler
Middle English
groulen
English, today
growl
Built from
From Middle English groulen, grollen, gurlen (“of the bowels: to growl, rumble”), either possibly from Old French groler (variant of croler (“to be agitated, shake”)), grouler, grouller (“to growl, grumble”), from Frankish grullen, gruljan or from Old English gryllan, both from Proto-Germanic gruljaną (“to make a sound; to growl, grumble, rumble”), from Proto-Indo-European gʰer- (“to make a noise; to mumble, murmur; to rattle; to grind; to rub, stroke”), probably ultimately imitative. The word is cognate with Middle Dutch grollen (“to make a noise; to croak, grumble, murmur; to be angry”) (modern Dutch grollen (“to grumble”)), German grollen (“to rumble; to be angry, bear ill will”), Old English grillan, griellan (“to provoke, offend; to gnash the teeth”). Compare grill. The noun is derived from the verb.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA