growl

Etymology

From Middle English groulen, grollen, gurlen (“of the bowels: to growl, rumble”), either possibly from Old French groler (variant of croler (“to be agitated, shake”)), grouler, grouller (“to growl, grumble”), from Frankish *grullen, *gruljan or from Old English gryllan, both from Proto-Germanic *gruljaną (“to make a sound; to growl, grumble, rumble”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰer- (“to make a noise; to mumble, murmur; to rattle; to grind; to rub, stroke”), probably ultimately imitative. The word is cognate with Middle Dutch grollen (“to make a noise; to croak, grumble, murmur; to be angry”) (modern Dutch grollen (“to grumble”)), German grollen (“to rumble; to be angry, bear ill will”), Old English grillan, griellan (“to provoke, offend; to gnash the teeth”). Compare grill. The noun is derived from the verb.

noun

1. A deep, rumbling, threatening sound made in the throat by an animal.
   Hardly anything is more intensely disagreeable to one walking along the street, than to hear near his path a low savage growl—the expression of a surly dog's opinion and purpose. 1857 June, S. H. L., “Growl”, in E. F. Blake et al., editors, The Yale Literary Magazine:[…], volume XXII, number VII, New Haven, Conn.: Published by Thomas H. Pease; printed by T. J. Stafford, →OCLC, page 287
   A deep growl was the answer I received, and the bear, for such it was, walked quickly away in the same direction whence he had come. 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 282
2. (by extension) A similar sound made by a human.
3. (by extension) The rumbling sound made by a human's hungry stomach.
   Riding down the main thoroughfare, the growl of his stomach taints the soothing jazz playing on the radio. 2004, Rique Johnson, chapter 2, in Whispers from a Troubled Heart, Largo, Md.: Strebor Books, page 21
4. (by extension) An aggressive grumbling.
   The Welsh farmer, strong, broad-shouldered and blue-eyed, acknowledged Willie's presence by an unintelligible ejaculation which sounded very much like a growl, and with not very cheerful hospitality pushed a chair towards him. […] [T]he farmer swallowed his broth in huge spoonfuls, alternating with growls, […] 1864 July, Robert M. Anderson, “Over the Plains”, in The Dollar Monthly Magazine, volume XX, number 1 (number 115 overall), Boston, Mass.: Office American Union, Flag of Our Union, and Novelette[…], →OCLC, page 44, column 1
   One of the shows we saw was Captain Beefheart at the Finsbury Park Astoria, now the Rainbow Theatre. It was one of my all-time favorite shows, the Captain an outrageous character who defied all bounds of middle-class taste with his Delta-blues growl and made-up language. 2014, Billy Idol, “Sucking in the ’70s”, in Dancing with Myself, New York, N.Y.: Touchstone, Simon & Schuster, part I (London), page 44
5. (jazz, by extension) A low-pitched rumbling sound produced with a wind instrument.
   The growl effect comes from fitting a small straight mute—a cornet mute for trumpet and a trumpet mute for trombone—covering the instrument's bell with a rubber plunger, the kind used by plumbers, and moving it in and out to affect the tone. 2013, Stephen Feinstein, quoting John Chilton, “Duke Ellington”, in Incredible African-American Jazz Musicians, Berkeley Heights, N.J.: Enslow Publishers, page 28
   Just as [Duke] Ellington the composer was not the originator of the growls, moans, and other expressive devices that jazz musicians developed from European instruments, neither was he the particular techniques he used at the piano. It was the wealth of possibilities he uncovered for combining, simplifying, expanding, or even distorting the common jazz piano vocabulary of the day that put Ellington in a class by himself. 2014, Bill Dobbins, “Duke Ellington and the World of Jazz Piano”, in Edward Green, Evan Spring, editors, The Cambridge Companion to Duke Ellington (African-American Collective Biographies), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, page 197
6. (by extension) Death growl

verb

1. (intransitive) To utter a deep guttural sound, as an angry animal; to give forth an angry, grumbling sound.
   The dog growled at me as I walked past.
   Let bears and lions growl and fight, / Let bears and lions growl and fight, / For 'tis their nature too, / For 'tis their nature too. 1806, [Isaac] Watts, B. Jacobs [i.e., Benjamin Jacob], “Let Dogs Delight to Bark and Bite. Song 16.”, in Dr. Watts’ Divine & Moral Songs[…], London: Printed for & sold by the author,[…], →OCLC, page 18
   "All's for the worst" is a very common motto, and under its influence there are thousands who growl when they go to bed, and growl still louder when they get up; who growl at their breakfast, who growl at their dinner, who growl at their supper, and who growl between meals. Discontent is written in every feature of their visage; […] 1841, “Fydget Fyxington”, in Charles Dickens, editor, The Pic Nic Papers.[…] (Collection of Ancient and Modern British Authors; CCCXXX), Paris: Baudry’s European Library,[…]; and Stassin et Xavier,[…], →OCLC, page 225
   Lord Derby growled,—growling especially at Mr. [William Ewart] Gladstone,—and the Archbishop of Canterbury growled, and the Bishop of Oxford growled, and the Marquis of Bath (a good Conservative) growled, but he (the Marquis) growled at the Government rather than at the Bill. 25 April 1868, The Spectator: A Weekly Review of Politics, Literature, Theology, and Art, volume 41, number 2078, London: John Campbell,[…], →ISSN, →OCLC, page 482, column 2
   April woke in darkness to the sound of Baron growling. Not that she could hear the dog, exactly. He was far out in the backyard at the edge of the woods. […] April waited for the dog to settle down. Instead, his growling grew deeper. 2016, Ted Sanders, “April”, in The Harp and the Ravenvine (The Keepers; 2), New York, N.Y.: Harper
2. (intransitive, jazz) Of a wind instrument: to produce a low-pitched rumbling sound.
   And he is bending in the wind, scooping pitch, growling. […] He plays his false fingers. Chokes the trumpet. He is naked. This is naked jazz. O-bop-she-bam. Never lying. Telling it like it is. 1998, Jackie Kay, “Music”, in Trumpet, London: Picador; 1st Vintage Contemporaries edition, New York, N.Y.: Vintage Books, 2000
   James "Bubber" Miley "used to growl all night long, playing gutbucket on his horn. That was when we decided to forget all about the sweet music." 2016, Henry Martin, Keith Waters, quoting Duke Ellington, “1920s Jazz in New York and Europe”, in Jazz: The First 100 Years, 3rd enhanced edition, Boston, Mass.: Cengage Learning, page 121
3. (intransitive, software) To send a user a message via the Growl software library.
4. (transitive) To express (something) by growling.
   The old man growled his displeasure at the postman.
   Bastane, as he entered, growled an invective, while he sullenly expressed his discontent at an unexpected call and additional labour. 1853, Marca, “The Leads of St. Mark”, in The British Journal: A Home, Colonial, and General Magazine, volume III, London: John Mortimer, publisher,[…], →OCLC, page 345
5. (transitive, jazz) To play a wind instrument in a way that produces a low-pitched rumbling sound.
   […] John Gilmore would take up his tenor and growl a keening march, Danny Thompson stab and worry with a flute, Sun Ra leave his big conga and mount the temple of keyboards for a ritual parenthesis of chromatic zig-zags and electro-howls. 2005, Gerald Majer, “Proxima Ra”, in The Velvet Lounge: On Late Chicago Jazz, New York, N.Y., Chichester, West Sussex: Columbia University Press, page 37
6. (intransitive) To perform death growl vocals.