caterwaul
To cry as cats in heatTo cry as cats in heat; to make a harsh, offensive noise.
» Would you stop that caterwauling?
Ты бы не мог прекратить этот кошачий концерт? — odexed
fenfang557 · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
2 senses(intransitive)To cry as cats in heat; to make a harsh, offensive noise.
(intransitive)To have a noisy argument, like cats.
- utter shrieks, as of cats
Examples
2 sentencesWould you stop that caterwauling?
ruТы бы не мог прекратить этот кошачий концерт? — odexed
There will be a lot of infighting and caterwauling in this place in order to try to move in that direction.
Translations
2 languagesOrigin
From Middle English caterwrawen, from cater (“cat”) + wrawen, wrawlen (“cry like a cat”),From Middle English caterwrawen, from cater (“cat”) + wrawen, wrawlen (“cry like a cat”), equivalent to cat + waul. Compare Low German katerwaulen (“to cry like a cat”) and Middle Dutch cater (“tomcat”) (Dutch kater).
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
caterwauls, caterwauling, caterwauled, caterwauled| Base form | caterwaul · to caterwaul |
|---|---|
| 3rd person singular | caterwauls |
| Present participle | caterwauling |
| Past simple | caterwauled |
| Past participle | caterwauled |
regular · Lesson
Synonyms
1 synonyms- utter shrieks, as of cats:yowl
Word family
1 related wordsLessons for this word
3 lessons- A1Present simple — Because it is a verb
- A1Past simple, regular verbs — Because of its past form
- A2Present perfect: introduction — Because of its past participle
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.