owling
/ˈaʊ.lɪŋ/
owling noun: birding, specifically to catch owls.
Noun (1)
owling (uncountable)
- Birding, specifically to catch owls.
- The smuggling of sheep or wool out of England.
- A variation on planking in which a person is photographed or filmed squatting down in an unusual location.
- Planking was soon replaced by owling.2012 March 28, Trey Parker, “Faith Hilling”, in South Park, season 16, episode 3, spoken by Reporter
Noun (2)
owling (plural owlings)
- A small, juvenile, or baby owl; owlet.
- Owls are extra hungry then, there being a batch of Greatlings or Hornlings or Owlings or whatever Great Horned Owl babies are called sitting on the edge of a nest waiting on Pa and Ma Owl to bring home the bacon.1940, Canadian Forestry Association, Forest and outdoors - Volume 36 - Page 344
- Eumeus, who was sitting on the stairs, pointed to the roof of the stable. Perched on its top, huddled together, three owlings were ogling them.1985, Romanian Review, volume 39, numbers 6-12, page 22
Forms of owling
| plural | owlings |
|---|---|
| alternative form | owlling |
Origin of owling
From owl + -ing. Smuggling of sheep is so called because it was done at night, when owls call.
From owl + -ling.
Questions about owling
- What does owling mean?
- Owling means birding, specifically to catch owls.
- What part of speech is owling?
- Owling is a noun.
- How do you pronounce owling?
- Owling is pronounced /ˈaʊ.lɪŋ/.
- What is the plural of owling?
- The plural of owling is owlings.
Words near owling in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: owling (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-owling.wav.
Cite this entry: “owling.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/owling. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.