Word.ws English Dictionary

caterwaul

Syllables: ca·ter·waul/ˈkæt.ə.wɔːl//ˈkæt.ɚ.wɔl/

caterwaul verb: to cry as cats in heat; to make a harsh, offensive noise.

Verb

caterwaul (third-person singular simple present caterwauls, present participle caterwauling, simple past and past participle caterwauled)

  1. (intransitive) To cry as cats in heat; to make a harsh, offensive noise.
  2. (intransitive) To have a noisy argument, like cats.

Noun

caterwaul (plural caterwauls)

  1. A yowling.
  2. A noisy quarrel.

caterwaul meaning in Tamil and Malayalam

caterwaul in Tamil

பூனையின் அலறல், பூனைப்போல் கிறிச்சென ஒலியெழுப்பு, பூனைகள் போல் சண்டையிடு

caterwaul in Malayalam

howl, wail, bawl
കരഞ്ഞുശണ്ഠ കൂടുക, അപസ്വരമുണ്ടാക്കുക, ഒച്ചയുണ്ടാക്കുക, ഒച്ചവയ്ക്കുക, ഊളം വിളിക്കുക, കൂവുക

Forms of caterwaul

Verb
third-person singular presentcaterwauls
present participlecaterwauling
past participlecaterwauled
pastcaterwauled
Noun
pluralcaterwauls

Origin of caterwaul

From Middle English caterwrawen, from cater (“cat”) + wrawen, wrawlen (“cry like a cat”), equivalent to cat + waul. Compare Low German katerwaulen (“to cry like a cat”) and Middle Dutch cater (“tomcat”) (Dutch kater).

Words formed from caterwaul

Questions about caterwaul

What does caterwaul mean?
Caterwaul means to cry as cats in heat; to make a harsh, offensive noise.
What is caterwaul in Tamil?
Caterwaul in Tamil is பூனையின் அலறல், பூனைப்போல் கிறிச்சென ஒலியெழுப்பு, பூனைகள் போல் சண்டையிடு. See Caterwaul meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is caterwaul?
Caterwaul can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce caterwaul?
Caterwaul is pronounced /ˈkæt.ə.wɔːl/ (UK).
What is the past tense of caterwaul?
The past tense of caterwaul is caterwauled.

Words near caterwaul in the dictionary

  1. caterpillars
  2. caterpillarweed
  3. caterpiller
  4. caterpillers
  5. caters
  6. caterwaul
  7. caterwauled
  8. caterwauler
  9. caterwaulers
  10. caterwauling
  11. caterwaulings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: caterwaul (page history and authors); caterwaul (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); caterwaul (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-caterwaul.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-caterwaul.wav.

Cite this entry: “caterwaul.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/caterwaul. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.