Word.ws English Dictionary

prowl

/pɹaʊl/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

obsolete/pɹoʊl/

prowl verb: to rove over, through, or about in a stealthy manner; especially, to search in, as for prey or booty.

prowl: to rove over, through, or about in a stealthy manner; especially, to search in, as for prey or booty
Image: Apurv10, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Verb

prowl (third-person singular simple present prowls, present participle prowling, simple past and past participle prowled)

  1. (ambitransitive) To rove over, through, or about in a stealthy manner; especially, to search in, as for prey or booty.
    • Watch the lioness prowling in the shrubbery for zebras.
    • It's easy to sneak vandalism into Wiktionary as there are few other users prowling the Recent Changes page.
  2. (intransitive) To idle; to go about aimlessly.
    • That dandy has nothing better to do than prowl around town all day in his pinstripe suit.
  3. (obsolete, transitive) To collect by plunder.
    • to prowl money

Noun

prowl (plural prowls)

  1. (colloquial) The act of prowling.
    • I'm going on a midnight prowl.

prowl meaning in Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada

prowl in Tamil

எவ்வித நோக்கமும் இன்றிப் பார்த்தல், இரைக்காக சுற்றுப்புறத்தை பார்த்தல்

prowl in Malayalam

ഇരതേടി നടക്കുക, പതുങ്ങി നടക്കുക, കൊള്ളയടിക്കുക, ചുറ്റിനടക്കുക

prowl in Kannada

ಸದ್ದಾಗದಂತೆ ಸುಳಿದಾಡುವುದು, ಬೀದಿ ಸುತ್ತುವುದು, ಅರಸುತ್ತ ಸಂಚರಿಸುವುದು, ಸದ್ದಿಲ್ಲದೆ ಸುಳಿದಾಡು, ಬೀದಿ ಸುತ್ತು, ಸುತ್ತುಹಾಕು

Examples of prowl in a sentence

  • He prowls each place, still in new colours decked.a. 1587, Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “(please specify the folio)”, in [Fulke Greville; Matthew Gwinne; John Florio], editors...
  • While McCarthy prowled the touchline barking orders, his opposite number watched on motionless and expressionless and, with 25 minutes to go, decided to throw on Nicolas Anelka for Kalou.2011 January 5, Mark Ashenden, “Wolverhampton 1 - 0 Chelsea”, in BBC:

All 30 example sentences with prowl

Forms of prowl

Verb
third-person singular presentprowls
present participleprowling
past participleprowled
pastprowled
Noun
pluralprowls

Past tense of prowl: prowled

Origin of prowl

From Middle English prollen, of unknown origin.

Words formed from prowl

Phrases with prowl

Words that rhyme with prowl

15 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about prowl

What does prowl mean?
Prowl means to rove over, through, or about in a stealthy manner; especially, to search in, as for prey or booty.
What is prowl in Tamil?
Prowl in Tamil is எவ்வித நோக்கமும் இன்றிப் பார்த்தல், இரைக்காக சுற்றுப்புறத்தை பார்த்தல். See Prowl meaning in Tamil.
How do you use prowl in a sentence?
He prowls each place, still in new colours decked.
What part of speech is prowl?
Prowl can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce prowl?
Prowl is pronounced /pɹaʊl/.
What is the past tense of prowl?
The past tense of prowl is prowled.

Words near prowl in the dictionary

  1. prowfish
  2. prowfishes
  3. prowhaling
  4. prowhite
  5. prowhiteness
  6. prowl
  7. prowl car
  8. prowl cars
  9. prowled
  10. prowler
  11. prowlers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: prowl (page history and authors); prowl (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); prowl (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); prowl (Kannada Wiktionary) (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)-Vealhurl-prowl.wav.

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