squall

/ˈskwɔːl/

squall verb: to cry or wail loudly.

Verb

squall (third-person singular simple present squalls, present participle squalling, simple past and past participle squalled)

To cry or wail loudly.
- Sow ran and squall'd,
  While Jack he bawl'd,
  And Jill join'd in the choir,
  Dog Ball being near,
  Bit sow by the ear,
  And threw Jack into the mire.1810, Jack and Jill, and old Dame Gill, York: J. Kendrew, page 12
- Squalling was the word for it, Pew's anger rose so high at these objections; till at last, his passion completely taking the upper hand, he struck at them right and left in his blindness, and his stick sounded heavily on more than one.1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC
To fall suddenly and forcefully, as if a squall.
- […] rain squalled fretfully against the schoolhouse roof. Although it had stopped by the time the afternoon recess was due, Miss Willie decided that it was too cold and raw for the children to be out a full half hour, so she sent them[…]1994 September 1, Janice Holt Giles, Miss Willie, University Press of Kentucky, →ISBN, page 165
- […] of squalling rain and a blustering westerly wind.2009 March 1, Helen Hollick, Kingmaking: Book One of the Pendragon's Banner Trilogy, Sourcebooks, Inc., →ISBN, page 5

Noun

squall (plural squalls)

(often) A sudden storm, as found in a squall line.
- Luckily she wasn’t there any more, no one was, when he returned from the Caribbean carnival damp-hatted and soaked through after being caught unprepared by a squall of hard, hot rain.2001, Salman Rushdie, Fury: A Novel, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN, page 5
- With reports of the Japanese forces bearing down on them confirmed, Rear Admiral Sprague orders his ships east, heading towards a series of rain squalls, hoping for concealment. This will hopefully delay the Japanese closing the range, and also draw them away from the much-more-vulnerable landing...2019 February 27, Drachinifel, 10:57 from the start, in The Battle of Samar - Odds? What are those?, archived from the original on 03 Nov 2022
A squall line, multicell line, or part of a squall line.
A loud cry or wail.
- But the third Emir, now seeing himself all alone on the quarter-deck, seems to feel relieved from some curious restraint; for, tipping all sorts of knowing winks in all sorts of directions, and kicking off his shoes, he strikes into a sharp but noiseless squall of a hornpipe right over the Grand...1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 34, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 163
- The media present rising prices as a passing squall for the middle class, brought on by Vlad ’n’ Liz and resulting in spiking mortgage rates and fewer trips to Waitrose. But beneath those headlines are millions of others for whom the problem isn’t rising prices, but falling incomes.2023 August 17, Aditya Chakrabortty, “Can’t pay and they really do take it away: what happens when the bailiffs come knocking”, in The Guardian

squall meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali and Malayalam

squall in Tamil

பய்ப்புயல், திடீர்ப்புயல், திடீரெனக் கிளம்புங்காற்று

squall in Malayalam

വലിയ ശബ്ദം, സീൽക്കാരം, കർക്കശാക്രോശം

More languagesFewer languages

squall in Kannada: ಇದ್ದಕ್ಕಿದ್ದಂತೆ ಬೀಸುವ ಬಿರುಗಾಳಿ, ಕೂಗಾಟ, ಚೀರಾಟ, ಅರಚಾಟ
squall in Punjabi: ਝੱਖੜ jhakkhaṛ
squall in Pashto: سيلۍ
squall in Indonesian: sendalu

Examples of squall in a sentence

Squalling like an infuriated cat, the shadow crashed down1916, Jack London, The Red One:
The orchestra burst into a sudden loud squalling.1934 October, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Burmese Days, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, →OCLC:
Some night-bird, belike, or a sea-gull squalling below the headland.1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 39:
she wrapped the squalling, wriggling baby tightly into the fine cotton sheet1998, Anne McCafferey, Masterharper of Pern:

All 16 example sentences with squall

Forms of squall

Verb
third-person singular present	squalls
present participle	squalling
past participle	squalled
past	squalled
Noun
plural	squalls

Origin of squall

From Middle English *squalen and squelen (“to cry, scream, squall”), from Old Norse skvala (“to cry out”), probably ultimately imitative with influence from squeal and bawl. Cognate with Swedish skvala (“to gush, pour down”), Norwegian skval (“sudden rush of water”). The noun is probably from the verb.

Words formed from squall

Phrases with squall

Words that rhyme with squall

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about squall

What does squall mean?: Squall means to cry or wail loudly.
What is squall in Hindi?: Squall in Hindi is झक्कड़ (jhakkaṛ). See Squall meaning in Hindi.
How do you use squall in a sentence?: Squalling like an infuriated cat, the shadow crashed down
What part of speech is squall?: Squall can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce squall?: Squall is pronounced /ˈskwɔːl/.
What is the past tense of squall?: The past tense of squall is squalled.

Words near squall in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: squall (page history and authors); झक्कड़ (Hindi) (page history and authors); squall (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); squall (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); squall (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); squall (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਝੱਖੜ (Punjabi) (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: 2026-09-02

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

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