Link Centre Dictionary

howling

how·ling

UK/ˈhaʊlɪŋ/ US/ˈhaʊlɪŋ/ fairly common

noun

1.

a long loud emotional utterance

  • “he gave a howl of pain”
  • “howls of laughter”
  • “their howling had no effect”

adjective

1.

noisy with or as if with loud cries and shouts

  • “a crying mass of rioters”
  • “a howling wind”
  • “shouting fans”
  • “the yelling fiend”
Similar
2.

extraordinarily good; used especially as intensifiers

  • “a fantastic trip to the Orient”
  • “the film was fantastic!”
  • “a howling success”
  • “a marvelous collection of rare books”
  • “had a rattling conversation about politics”
  • “a tremendous achievement”

Origin

From Middle English howlinge, howlynge, equivalent to howl + -ing (present participle ending).

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.