squall
Part of speech: verb
noun
Morphological type: simple
Topics: climatology
meteorology
natural-sciences
nautical
transport
Etymology: From Middle English *squalen and squelen (“to cry, scream, squall”), from Old Norse skvala (“to cry out”), probably ultimately imitative with influence from squeal and bawl.
Cognate with Swedish skvala (“to gush, pour down”), Norwegian skval (“sudden rush of water”). The noun is probably from the verb.
Inflected forms:
form: squalls
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: squalling
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: squalled
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: squalled
pos: verb
tags: past
form: squalls
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: To cry or wail loudly.
pos: verb
examples: Squalling was the word for it, Pew's anger rose so high at these objections; till at last, his passion completely taking the upper hand, he struck at them right and left in his blindness, and his stick sounded heavily on more than one.
Squalling like an infuriated cat, the shadow crashed down
The orchestra burst into a sudden loud squalling.
Some night-bird, belike, or a sea-gull squalling below the headland.
she wrapped the squalling, wriggling baby tightly into the fine cotton sheet
gloss: To fall suddenly and forcefully, as if a squall.
pos: verb
examples: […] rain squalled fretfully against the schoolhouse roof. Although it had stopped by the time the afternoon recess was due, Miss Willie decided that it was too cold and raw for the children to be out a full half hour, so she sent them[…]
[…] of squalling rain and a blustering westerly wind.
Rain squalled sudden against the window. The Old Writer cursed and shouldered out the door.
Rain squalled in heavy sheets across the street.
[…] the sky opened up into a cloud-burst of squalling rain.
gloss: A sudden storm, as found in a squall line.
pos: noun
tags: often
examples: Luckily she wasn’t there any more, no one was, when he returned from the Caribbean carnival damp-hatted and soaked through after being caught unprepared by a squall of hard, hot rain.
With reports of the Japanese forces bearing down on them confirmed, Rear Admiral Sprague orders his ships east, heading towards a series of rain squalls, hoping for concealment. This will hopefully delay the Japanese closing the range, and also draw them away from the much-more-vulnerable landing ships.
gloss: A squall line, multicell line, or part of a squall line.
pos: noun
gloss: A loud cry or wail.
pos: noun
examples: But the third Emir, now seeing himself all alone on the quarter-deck, seems to feel relieved from some curious restraint; for, tipping all sorts of knowing winks in all sorts of directions, and kicking off his shoes, he strikes into a sharp but noiseless squall of a hornpipe right over the Grand Turk’s head; and then, by a dexterous sleight, pitching his cap up into the mizentop for a shelf, he goes down rollicking so far at least as he remains visible from the deck, reversing all other processions, by bringing up the rear with music.
The media present rising prices as a passing squall for the middle class, brought on by Vlad ’n’ Liz and resulting in spiking mortgage rates and fewer trips to Waitrose. But beneath those headlines are millions of others for whom the problem isn’t rising prices, but falling incomes.
Derived words: squaller
squally
black squall
rainsquall
snow squall
squallery
squallish
thundersquall
white squall
Translations: