Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To wrinkle or contract the brow as an expression of anger or disapproval. See Synonyms at frown.
- v. To express with a frowning facial expression.
- n. A look of anger or frowning disapproval.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To lower the brows as in anger or displeasure; frown, or put on a frowning look; look gloomy, severe, or angry: either literally or figuratively.
- To affect with a scowl: as, to scowl one down or away.
- To send with a scowling or threatening aspect.
- n. A lowering or wrinkling of the brows as in anger or displeasure; a look of anger, displeasure, discontent, or sullenness; a frown or frowning appearance or look.
- n. Old workings at the outcrop of the deposits of iron ore. Some of these are of large dimensions, and are ascribed to the Romans.
Wiktionary
- n. The wrinkling of the brows or face in frowning; the expression of displeasure, sullenness, or discontent in the countenance; an angry frown.
- n. Hence, gloom; dark or threatening aspect.
- v. To wrinkle the brows, as in frowning or displeasure; to put on a frowning look; to look sour, sullen, severe, or angry.
- v. Hence, to look gloomy, dark, or threatening; to lower.
- v. To look at or repel with a scowl or a frown.
- v. To express by a scowl; as, to scowl defiance.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To wrinkle the brows, as in frowning or displeasure; to put on a frowning look; to look sour, sullen, severe, or angry.
- v. Hence, to look gloomy, dark, or threatening; to lower.
- v. To look at or repel with a scowl or a frown.
- v. To express by a scowl.
- n. The wrinkling of the brows or face in frowing; the expression of displeasure, sullenness, or discontent in the countenance; an angry frown.
- n. Hence, gloom; dark or threatening aspect.
WordNet 3.0
- v. frown with displeasure
- n. a facial expression of dislike or displeasure
Etymologies
- Middle English scoulen, probably of Scandinavian origin. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I heard he has a mean scowl from the bench.vs. Pittsburgh, 12/23/10”
The Washington Post: Capitals games I'm NOT looking forward to in 2010-11
“His little scowl is probably a response to the putrid stench that pervaded all of the flooded neighborhoods (that or he's just yukking it up for the camera).”
“Kurt belched loudly, provoking a scowl from the Greek.”
“Kristen Stewart’s perma-scowl is gonna be working overtime once she gets wind of reports that Robert Pattinson — her rumored love interest on and off the set of the Twilight films — has been secretly bumping uglies with Gossip Girl star Leighton Meester.”
“Somewhere behind the scowl was the start of a little-boy grin.”
“A scowl was the only reply, but the big mestizo lowered his bow and turned over on his bed of leaves.”
The Adventures of Piang the Moro Jungle Boy A Book for Young and Old
“This favour was dispensed to you from under an overbearing scowl, which is the true expression of the great autocrat when he has made up his mind to give a battering to some ships and to hunt certain others home in one breath of cruelty and benevolence, equally distracting.”
“A certain over-hanging of his brows was -- especially when he contracted them, as, in perplexity or endeavour, he not infrequently did -- called a scowl by such as did not love him; but it was of shallow insignificance, and probably the trick of some ancestor.”
“The scowl was a clear indication of how the evening had gone, but nevertheless, Chuck Hayes attempted to explain.”
“-- a scowl is a twist o 'face with some men; but with Davy his smile was a twist that had t' be _kep'_ twisted.”
Harbor Tales Down North With an Appreciation by Wilfred T. Grenfell, M.D.
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘scowl’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Olde Englisc
English words of Anglo-Saxon origin.
onslaught, slain, clove, clave, thrice, nincompoop, scorn, storm, scant, lurk, beneath, atop and 143 more...
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SMILE and other emotive verbs
Single verbs that describe expression or emotional reaction. "He __ed" (smiled/gulped/scoffed...)
smile, beam, sneer, scoff, giggle, laugh, snigger, scowl, grin, leer, wince, grimace and 97 more...
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Words For Novel
viridity, effigy, paragon, congested, acrid, lilting, clandestine, plethora, accolade, sardonic, naïve, reckoning and 285 more...
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Words from books I've read
These are some words I didn't know when I read and now I want to know!
Scribble, Newfangled, swift, swathe, budget, obstreperous, trickle, rank, covetous, scratch, hunch, dodge and 179 more...
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the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, S
scrunch, solace, sabotage, saccade, sacerdotal, sacrilegious, sacristy, snappy, skew, steadfast, scowl, scorch and 781 more...
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kat's words
ecumenical, cacophony, clatter, marimba, bamboo, saffron, slice, mercurial, pomegranate, cranky, slipshod, scritch and 511 more...
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elvesoncrack's Words
lachrymose, blustering, fjord, chihuahua, chiffon, catalytic, stile, gefilte, prosh, thwart, ralph, ickle and 379 more...
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wreckingball's Words
reprehensible, problematize, crepuscular, deleterious, pestilent, strumpet, draggletail, interrobang, meretricious, systematize, schadenfreude, capricious and 443 more...
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ADW2
nudnik, temper, intercalate, cleave, scowl, chapfallen, malapropos, disport, annals, paean, paradisiacal, whet and 362 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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My List
A list of words that I have generated over time.
cairn, cacodaemoniacal, abash, abject, abjure, abstemious, abhor, abnegate, abnegation, abscond, abstruse, acclivity and 702 more...
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SAT PSAT ALPHABETICAL S
surrogate, supplanted, supercilious, supersede, substantiate, synopsis, symmetry, sumptuous, swelter, swagger, surmise, summation and 156 more...
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Face Place ㋡
Facial expressions, methods for determining emotional states, and general terms for passionate emotional states.
I've put specific-emotion words in these other lists of mine:
Hap...perfervid, vehement, demonstrative, fervent, torrid, frantic, agog, choler, moue, histrionic, dacrygelosis, verklempt and 92 more...
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ifjuly's list
favorite words. some are made up injokes between me and my husband or family.
skein, zaftig, july, bed, orifice, aesthete, ink, parce-que, desormais, cake, pusillanimous, pulse and 531 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for scowl.

whichbe Good observation. There's something about the way this word sounds that feels very overwhelming for me. Aug 22, 2008
shevek I was thinking about this word earlier, because of the words it contains — cow, scow, cowl. There aren't a whole lot of words which can, discounting inflection, be expanded on either side or both to form new words. I wonder if there is a name for this kind of wordplay. Aug 22, 2008