mewl

American  

[myool] / myul /

verb (used without object)

1. to cry, as a baby, young child, or the like; whimper.

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mewl British  

/ mjuːl /

verb

1. (intr) (esp of a baby) to cry weakly; whimper (often in the phrase mewl and puke )

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noun

1. such a cry

Other Word Forms

• mewler noun

Etymology

Origin of mewl

First recorded in 1590–1600; imitative

Explanation

To mewl is to cry in a feeble way, like a tired baby or a sick cat. The pitiful sound of kittens as they mewl for their distracted mother is heartbreaking. There's a pitiful quality when someone mewls, a weakness and vulnerability to the soft sound, which usually characterizes the cry of a baby or young animal. Shakespeare used it in his famous "All the world's a stage" speech from As You Like It, describing an infant "mewling and puking in the nurse's arms." Mewl is imitative, one of those words formed by mimicking the sound they describe.

Example Sentences

Tannahill, now jerked upside down, would mewl and scream and clamber down a wall.

From New York Times • Mar. 29, 2023

The crowd’s roar was more of a mewl.

From Los Angeles Times • May 14, 2021

Here’s a taster: “Its glass eyes seemed to come into proper focus, and then the doll flinched and started to shake. Its mouth fell open, emitting a low, eerie mewl …”

From The Guardian • Oct. 31, 2019

And for whatever reason, as confirmed at Town Hall, the most startling of her early-period voices — the piercing, metallic mewl — is mostly gone.

From New York Times • Mar. 20, 2010

And in the background, the constant, high, whining mewl of local disapproval.

From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy

Related Words

• break down
• complain
• grieve
• howl
• moan
• mourn
• sob
• wail
• whimper