Word.ws English Dictionary

growl

/ˈɡɹæʊ̯l/UK/ˈɡɹaʊ̯l/

growl noun: a deep, rumbling, threatening sound made in the throat by an animal.

Noun

growl (plural growls)

  1. A deep, rumbling, threatening sound made in the throat by an animal.
    • Hardly anything is more intensely disagreeable to one walking along the street, than to hear near his path a low savage growl—the expression of a surly dog's opinion and purpose.1857 June, S. H. L., “Growl”, in E. F. Blake et al., editors, The Yale Literary Magazine: […], volume XXII, number VII, New Haven, Conn.: Published by Thomas H. Pease; printed by T. J. Stafford...
    • A deep growl was the answer I received, and the bear, for such it was, walked quickly away in the same direction whence he had come.1886, Peter Christen Asbjø￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 282
  2. (broadly) A similar sound made by a human.
  3. (broadly) The rumbling sound made by a human's hungry stomach.
    • Riding down the main thoroughfare, the growl of his stomach taints the soothing jazz playing on the radio.2004, Rique Johnson, chapter 2, in Whispers from a Troubled Heart, Largo, Md.: Strebor Books, →ISBN, page 21
  4. (broadly) An aggressive grumbling.
    • The clerk promised that he would; and Scrooge walked out with a growl. The office was closed in a twinkling, and the clerk, with the long ends of his white comforter dangling below his waist (for he boasted no great-coat), went down a slide on Cornhill, at the end of a lane of boys, twenty times...1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave I. Marley’s Ghost.”, in A Christmas Carol. […], London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 18
    • The Welsh farmer, strong, broad-shouldered and blue-eyed, acknowledged Willie's presence by an unintelligible ejaculation which sounded very much like a growl, and with not very cheerful hospitality pushed a chair towards him. […] [T]he farmer swallowed his broth in huge spoonfuls, alternating with...1864 July, Robert M. Anderson, “Over the Plains”, in The Dollar Monthly Magazine, volume XX, number 1 (number 115 overall), Boston, Mass.: Office American Union, Flag of Our Union, and Novelette […]...
  5. (broadly, jazz) A low-pitched rumbling sound produced with a wind instrument.
    • The growl effect comes from fitting a small straight mute—a cornet mute for trumpet and a trumpet mute for trombone—covering the instrument's bell with a rubber plunger, the kind used by plumbers, and moving it in and out to affect the tone.2013, Stephen Feinstein, quoting John Chilton, “Duke Ellington”, in Incredible African-American Jazz Musicians, Berkeley Heights, N.J.: Enslow Publishers, →ISBN, page 28
    • Just as [Duke] Ellington the composer was not the originator of the growls, moans, and other expressive devices that jazz musicians developed from European instruments, neither was he the particular techniques he used at the piano. It was the wealth of possibilities he uncovered for combining...2014, Bill Dobbins, “Duke Ellington and the World of Jazz Piano”, in Edward Green, Evan Spring, editors, The Cambridge Companion to Duke Ellington (African-American Collective Biographies)...
  6. (broadly) Death growl

Verb

growl (third-person singular simple present growls, present participle growling, simple past and past participle growled)

  1. (intransitive) To utter a deep guttural sound, as an angry animal; to give forth an angry, grumbling sound.
    • The dog growled at me as I walked past.
    • [T]here are Wolf-Whelps in Palaces, and Governments, as well as in Cottages, and Forreſts. […] They go out however, as there is Occaſion, and Hunt and Growle for Company; but at the ſame time, they give the Sign out of their Maſters hand, hold Intelligence with the Enemy; and Make uſe of their...1692, Roger L’Estrange, “[The Fables of Æsop, &c.] Fab[le] CLV. A Shepherd and a Wolves Whelp [Reflexion].”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […]...
    Synonyms:
    gnar, gnarl, gurl, snarl
  2. (intransitive, jazz) Of a wind instrument: to produce a low-pitched rumbling sound.
    • And he is bending in the wind, scooping pitch, growling. […] He plays his false fingers. Chokes the trumpet. He is naked. This is naked jazz. O-bop-she-bam. Never lying. Telling it like it is.1998, Jackie Kay, “Music”, in Trumpet, London: Picador, →ISBN; 1st Vintage Contemporaries edition, New York, N.Y.: Vintage Books, 2000, →ISBN
    • James "Bubber" Miley "used to growl all night long, playing gutbucket on his horn. That was when we decided to forget all about the sweet music."2016, Henry Martin, Keith Waters, quoting Duke Ellington, “1920s Jazz in New York and Europe”, in Jazz: The First 100 Years, 3rd enhanced edition, Boston, Mass.: Cengage Learning, →ISBN, page 121
  3. (intransitive) To send a user a message via the Growl software library.
  4. (transitive) To express (something) by growling.
    • The old man growled his displeasure at the postman.
    • Bastane, as he entered, growled an invective, while he sullenly expressed his discontent at an unexpected call and additional labour.1853, Marca, “The Leads of St. Mark”, in The British Journal: A Home, Colonial, and General Magazine, volume III, London: John Mortimer, publisher, […], →OCLC, page 345
  5. (transitive, jazz) To play a wind instrument in a way that produces a low-pitched rumbling sound.
    • […] John Gilmore would take up his tenor and growl a keening march, Danny Thompson stab and worry with a flute, Sun Ra leave his big conga and mount the temple of keyboards for a ritual parenthesis of chromatic zig-zags and electro-howls.2005, Gerald Majer, “Proxima Ra”, in The Velvet Lounge: On Late Chicago Jazz, New York, N.Y.; Chichester, West Sussex: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page 37
  6. (intransitive) To perform death growl vocals.

growl meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

growl in Tamil

to utter a deep guttural sound
உறுமு uṟumu

growl in Urdu

غرانا

growl in Bengali

গর্জন করা, রাগত স্বরে কথা বলা

growl in Malayalam

മുരളുക, മുറുമുറുക്കുക, പിറുപിറുക്കുക, മോങ്ങുക
More languagesFewer languages
growl in Kannada
ಗುರುಗುಟ್ಟು, ಗುರ್ರೆನ್ನು, ಗುರುಗುರಿಸು, ಗುಱ್ಱುಗುಟ್ಟು
growl in Sanskrit
घुर्घुरा ghurghurā
growl in Arabic
زَمْجَرَة zamjara, قَرْقَرَة qarqara, زَمْجَرَ zamjara

Examples of growl in a sentence

  • The clerk promised that he would; and Scrooge walked out with a growl.1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave I. Marley’s Ghost.”, in A Christmas Carol. […], London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 18:
  • It was one of my all-time favorite shows, the Captain an outrageous character who defied all bounds of middle-class taste with his Delta-blues growl and made-up language.2014, Billy Idol, “Sucking in the ’70s”, in Dancing with Myself, New York, N.Y.: Touchstone, Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, part I (London), page...
  • Let bears and lions growl and fight, / Let bears and lions growl and fight, / For 'tis their nature too, / For 'tis their nature too.1806, [Isaac] Watts; B. Jacobs [i.e., Benjamin Jacob], “Let Dogs Delight to Bark and Bite. Song 16.”, in Dr. Watts’ Divine & Moral Songs...
  • April woke in darkness to the sound of Baron growling.2016, Ted Sanders, “April”, in The Harp and the Ravenvine (The Keepers; 2), New York, N.Y.: Harper, →ISBN:

All 40 example sentences with growl

Synonyms of growl

Forms of growl

Noun
pluralgrowls
Verb
third-person singular presentgrowls
present participlegrowling
past participlegrowled
pastgrowled
alternative formgroil
alternative formgroul

Past tense of growl: growled

Plural of growl: growls

Origin of growl

From Middle English groulen, grollen, gurlen (“of the bowels: to growl, rumble”), either possibly from Old French groler (variant of croler (“to be agitated, shake”)), grouler, grouller (“to growl, grumble”), from Frankish *grullen, *gruljan or from Old English gryllan, both from Proto-Germanic *gruljaną (“to make a sound; to growl, grumble, rumble”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰer- (“to make a noise; to mumble, murmur; to rattle; to grind; to rub, stroke”), probably ultimately imitative. The word is cognate with Middle Dutch grollen (“to make a noise; to croak, grumble, murmur; to be angry”) (modern Dutch grollen (“to grumble”)), German grollen (“to rumble; to be angry, bear ill will”), Old English grillan, griellan (“to provoke, offend; to gnash the teeth”). Compare grill. The noun is derived from the verb.

Words formed from growl

Words that rhyme with growl

15 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about growl

What does growl mean?
Growl means a deep, rumbling, threatening sound made in the throat by an animal.
What is growl in Tamil?
Growl in Tamil is உறுமு (uṟumu). See Growl meaning in Tamil.
How do you use growl in a sentence?
The clerk promised that he would; and Scrooge walked out with a growl.
What part of speech is growl?
Growl can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce growl?
Growl is pronounced /ˈɡɹaʊ̯l/ (UK).
What is the plural of growl?
The plural of growl is growls.

Words near growl in the dictionary

  1. growing teratoma syndrome
  2. growing up
  3. growingly
  4. growings
  5. growk
  6. growl
  7. growled
  8. growler
  9. growleries
  10. growlers
  11. growlery

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: growl (page history and authors); growl (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Growl (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); growl (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); growl (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); घुर्घुरा (Sanskrit) (page history and authors). 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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-growl.ogg, en-au-growl.ogg.

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