Other forms: howling, howls, howled
To howl is to let out a long, rising, mournful cry. A wolf at the moon, a dog shut in a flat all afternoon, the noise that starts up in a kennel the moment one animal begins.
Wind howls too, down chimneys and around the corner of a building, and that is the use you meet second most. People howl when the feeling is too big for a normal noise: howl in pain, howl with grief, and — the one that surprises learners — howl with laughter, which is pure delight. It is also a noun: a howl of pain, a howl of protest from the members. Anything described as howling is extreme rather than sad, as in a howling gale or a howling success.
1verbhowl(Of a dog, wolf or similar animal) to make a long, loud, mournful cry.
“The dog howled every time an ambulance went past.”
2verbwind(Of the wind) to blow with a long, loud noise.
“The wind howled around the caravan all night.”
3verbwailTo cry out loudly in pain, anger or laughter.
“The whole class howled with laughter.”
4nounlongA long, loud cry.
“A howl went up from the crowd when the goal was disallowed.”
howl is a long loud cry.
Howl runs back through Middle English howlen and Old English hulian to Proto-Germanic huwilona, "to howl", and possibly to a Proto-Indo-European kew-, "to howl, scream". The likeliest explanation is the simplest one: the word is the noise itself, written down. Dutch huilen, German heulen and Danish hyle all still make the same sound.
Proto-Indo-European
*kū-
Proto-Germanic
*hūwilōną
Proto-West Germanic
*hūilōn
Old English
*hūlian
Middle English
howlen
English, today
howl
Built from
From Middle English howlen, houlen, from Old English hūlian, from Proto-West Germanic hūilōn, from Proto-Germanic hūwilōną, hiuwilōną (“to howl”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European kū-, kew- (“to howl, scream”). Likely of imitative of the sound origin. Cognate with stq huulje (“to howl”), Dutch huilen (“to cry”), Romanian a hăuli (“to howl”), Old French ouler, German Low German hulen (“to howl”), German heulen (“to howl”), Danish hyle (“to howl”), Swedish yla (“to scream, yell”), lrc آلٛیر (“howl”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA