different between growl vs gnarl

English

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 *gruljan? (“to make a sound; to growl, grumble, rumble”), from Proto-Indo-European *g?er- (“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.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: grä?l, IPA^(key): /??a?l/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /??a?l/
• Rhymes: -a?l

Noun

growl (plural growls)

1. A deep, rumbling, threatening sound made in the throat by an animal.
2. (by extension) The rumbling sound made by a person's stomach when hungry.
3. (by extension) An aggressive grumbling.
4. (jazz, by extension) A low-pitched rumbling sound produced with a wind instrument.

Derived terms

• death growl
• growlf
• undergrowl

Translations

See also

• grr

Verb

growl (third-person singular simple present growls, present participle growling, simple past and past participle growled)

1. (intransitive) To utter a deep guttural sound, as an angry animal; to give forth an angry, grumbling sound.

   Synonyms: gnar, gnarl, gurl, snarl
2. (intransitive, jazz) Of a wind instrument: to produce a low-pitched rumbling sound.
3. (intransitive, software) To send a user a message via the Growl software library.
4. (transitive) To express (something) by growling.
5. (transitive, jazz) To play a wind instrument in a way that produces a low-pitched rumbling sound.

Derived terms

Translations

Alternative forms

• groil (dialectal)
• groul (obsolete)

References

Further reading

• growling (wind instruments) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• growling (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• glowr

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /n??(r)l/
• Rhymes: -??(r)l

Etymology 1

Back-formation from gnarled.

Noun

gnarl (plural gnarls)

1. A knot in wood; a large or hard knot, or a protuberance with twisted grain, on a tree.
2. Something resembling a knot in wood, such as in stone or limbs.

Derived terms

• gnarly

Translations

Verb

gnarl (third-person singular simple present gnarls, present participle gnarling, simple past and past participle gnarled)

1. (transitive) To knot or twist something.

Translations

Adjective

gnarl

1. Gnarled, knotty, twisted.

Etymology 2

Onomatopoeic.

Verb

gnarl (third-person singular simple present gnarls, present participle gnarling, simple past and past participle gnarled)

1. (intransitive) To snarl or growl; to gnar.

Translations

References