Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To cry or screech like a cat in heat.
- v. To make a shrill, discordant sound.
- v. To have a noisy argument.
- n. A shrill, discordant sound.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To cry as cats under the influence of the sexual instinct; make a disagreeable howling or screeching.
Wiktionary
- v. intransitive To cry as cats in heat; to make a harsh, offensive noise.
- v. intransitive To have a noisy argument, like cats.
- n. A yowling.
- n. A noisy quarrel.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To cry as cats in rutting time; to make a harsh, offensive noise.
- n. A caterwauling.
WordNet 3.0
- v. utter shrieks, as of cats
- n. the yowling sound made by a cat in heat
Etymologies
- From Middle English caterwrawe (one of numerous earlier variants); from cater ("cat") + wrawen/wrawlen ("cry like a cat"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English *caterwawlen : *cater, tomcat; akin to Low German kater + wawlen, wrawlen, to yowl (ultimately of imitative origin). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I was not going to indict, complain or caterwaul, which is why I didn't even consider writing a year-in-review piece before very early this morning.”
“Unfortunately, most of the people who caterwaul about being offended are being serious.”
“Most of the people who caterwaul about being offended are being serious.”
“Although other kids were quicker with the software, Simon enjoyed these studies because he loved learning new words, like caterwaul, which meant “to shriek or yowl,” and taciturn, which described someone who was quiet… like him.”
“It's a comedy rule, it seems, that the louder you can say a line or caterwaul in reaction to some hoary bit of high jinks, the more uproarious the moment becomes.”
The Washington Post: Theater review: 'Fox on the Fairway' at Signature Theatre
“Jump the chair light the stove heat the pan stop the floor caterwaul beneath the faucet”
“You walk in to the deafening metronome uncha-uncha-uncha robotic caterwaul, the music almost binary in nature 101101-ing to a crowd of Latino gangbangers, septuagenarians, slumming rich kids and washed-up high school jocks with backwards hats who were just looking for something to date rape.”
“The Australian government is having a harder time endorsing the verdict, prompting the predictable caterwaul from China.”
“ The warbling, caroling, tweeting and trilling were a caterwaul of happiness.”
“The NRA could publicly gnash their teeth and caterwaul about mass disarmament resulting from the draconian rules imposed by the state of North Carolina and the dark overlords of the Time-Warner Cable Arena.”
The Huffington Post: Josh Sugarmann: NRA Annual Meeting: No Guns Allowed
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘caterwaul’.
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Words
phantasmagoria, eviscerate, avast, simulacrum, varicose, oblique, gestalt, ersatz, vernal, vivace, stellate, synecdoche and 330 more...
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Of Imitative Origin
Words formed in imitation of the sound of the things they signify.
bawl, biff, blizzard, blob, blooper, bob, boff, bomb, bonkers, boo, borborygmus, brouhaha and 148 more...
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El perro hace guau guau
Animal sounds in different languages, and the verbs that specify them.
Since Georgetown took down their page, the current definitive website for this information is:
Abbott ani...øf-øf, knor knor, groin groin, grunz, röf-röf, boo boo, hrgu hrgu, nöff-nöff, oink-oink, zumbar, ulular, rebuznar and 154 more...
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NTDW2
yawp, smug, whit, amidships, jounce, fallow, conscionable, polyp, nouveau riche, palatial, encomiastic, exchequer and 182 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2053 more...
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January 2012
bloviate, pastiche, apparat, facile, paroxysm, pique, bedfellow, pedigree, tutelage, protege, protégé, retroactive and 196 more...
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cicatrix
scar tissue
minatory, naira, Cluniac, embracive, prolix, hierophant, timorous, adduce, veracious, dysphoric, sang-froid, vitiate and 503 more...
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Not with a bang...
Whimpering, wailing words...
wheeple, whimper, whinge, whine, mewl, pule, moan, sniffle, snivel, weep, lament, mourn and 16 more...
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song & sound
susurrous, calypso, rhapsody, plosive, susurrus, rhotic, caterwaul, plashing, azan, syncopation, aria, neume and 16 more...
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the lascivious
orgiastic, nymph, breathless, writhe, calypso, Medusa, virago, sapphic, catamite, bisou, buss, succubus and 48 more...
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onomatopoeic
warble, quibble, quirk, drudgery, chortle, snicker, galumph, thwart, schlock, whimsy, garble, miffed and 25 more...
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Sounds
Shhh! Listen! Did you hear that?
tintinnabulous, susurration, ululation, pandemonium, keening, tinkle, clang, caterwaul, twangle, twank, din, rumble and 34 more...
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inquiryqueue's list
words delicious to pronounce
apostrophe, asphodel, anemone, cantaloupe, cantalevered, cardamom, coriander, petrichor, sycamore, luminous, tendril, peculiar and 122 more...
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Reckon's Word List
Turned On
tintinnabulation, talisman, soliloquy, serendipity, quintessential, rhapsody, plethora, myrrh, palimpsest, panoply, mellifluous, loquacious and 102 more...
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Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
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Quaintnesses
For those who wish no words were ever forgotten
opprobrium, tedium, encomium, odium, ire, enmity, beguile, wile, brazen, popinjay, squit, hoity-toity and 1161 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for caterwaul.
ofravens On storm-struck deck, wind sirens caterwaul
from "Channel Crossing," Sylvia Plath Apr 14, 2008
sonofgroucho This activity is sometimes frowned upon. May 4, 2007