Other forms: squalls
A squall is a sudden violent wind, often with rain. A sudden squall, squalls off the coast, the squall passed.
It arrives fast, lasts minutes and goes, which is what makes it dangerous to small boats — there is no time to shorten sail. A squall line is a row of them along a weather front. The verb also means to cry out harshly, as a baby does.
1nounsquallA sudden violent wind, often with rain.
“A sudden squall hit the harbour and almost tipped our little boat over.”
squall is a wind.
Probably from Old Norse skvala, to cry out, and imitative of the sound.
Old Norse
skvala — to cry out
Middle English
*squalen
English, today
squall
Built from
From Middle English squalen and squelen (“to cry, scream, squall”), from Old Norse skvala (“to cry out”), probably ultimately imitative of the sound with influence from squeal and bawl. Cognate with Swedish skvala (“to gush, pour down”), Norwegian skval (“sudden rush of water”). The noun is probably from the verb.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA