verb
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of caterwaul
1350–1400; Middle English cater ( wawen ) (equivalent to cater tomcat (< Middle Dutch ) + wawen to howl, Old English wāwan to blow, said of the wind) + waul, variant of wail
Explanation
A caterwaul is a yowl, shriek, or loud cry. If you've ever heard two cats fighting, you know what a caterwaul sounds like. While a caterwaul can be made by a person, it's more likely the wailing sound that a distressed or fighting animal makes. To make this sound is to caterwaul — it's both a noun and verb. Cats are, in fact, the animal best known to caterwaul, and the word is believed to come from the German katerwaulen, "cry like a cat," or possibly the Middle Dutch cater, "tomcat," and Middle English waul, "yowl."
Vocabulary lists containing caterwaul
Into the Wild
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Twelfth Night
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Novel Study: The Great Gatsby, Chapters 1–6
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Its “sounds,” she writes, are those “of the busying and tidying of the quietly controlling. The sniveling and whimpering of the long overlooked, the caterwaul of the brokenhearted.”
From Washington Post • Apr. 21, 2020
Amid all the caterwaul of Washington comes this calm message:
From Washington Times • Aug. 9, 2018
His keening caterwaul sounds as if he had flicked the ejector switch but forgotten to undo his seat belt.
From The New Yorker • Nov. 16, 2015
What prevented “Sir Simpleton” from a similar fate was Mr. Moran, hammering at a central riff; his bond with Mr. akLaff held firm, and the saxophonists were free to stutter-step and caterwaul around them.
From New York Times • Sep. 28, 2014
“I wonder why they make that caterwaul noise, all screechy and harsh.”
From "Willodeen" by Katherine Applegate
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
