growl

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verb

ˈgrau̇(-ə)l

growled; growling; growls

Synonyms of growl next

intransitive verb

: rumble

his stomach growled

: to utter a growl

the dog growled at the stranger

: to complain angrily

transitive verb

: to utter with a growl : utter angrily

growl

2 of 2

Examples of growl in a Sentence

Verb I could hear a dog growling behind me. My stomach's been growling all morning. “What do you want?” he growled. He's always growling about the government. Noun The dog gave a menacing growl. He answered my question with a growl. We could hear a growl of thunder in the distance. See More

Recent Examples on the Web

Verb

Howl/Calls Both species howl, bark, growl, and yip to communicate with their packs and their neighbors, but wolves have a lower, deeper, smoother, and longer howl. —

Paul Richards, Field & Stream, 14 Sep. 2023 Fortunately, Thomas Gomez plays the gambling kingpin, Lee J. Cobb plays a police detective (how that man could growl), and Evelyn Keyes plays the lady who has Johnny’s number. —

Mark Feeney, BostonGlobe.com, 29 Aug. 2023 About 15 years ago, Liam Neeson picked up a cellphone and growled a haunting, threatening monologue that changed the course of his career. —

David Sims, The Atlantic, 25 Aug. 2023 The sidewalks cleared within minutes, replaced by the steady hum and growl of traffic on Sunset. —

Jonah Valdez, Los Angeles Times, 16 Aug. 2023 During these fights lions engage in a suite of bodily and olfactory engagements including posturing, roaring and growling, swatting, and biting, and even urination and territorial demarcation. —

Alexander Richard Braczkowski, Discover Magazine, 14 Aug. 2023 The men yelled, growled and bayed until neighborhood dogs started barking; voices rose to a frenzied pitch, then subsided. —

Tara Bahrampour, Washington Post, 13 Aug. 2023 But your stomach may also growl after a meal, when the stomach and intestines propel liquids and food through the digestive tract. —

Robert H. Shmerling, Chicago Tribune, 2 Aug. 2023 The couple was alerted last Friday night by their dog, Panda, who began growling around 1:30 in the morning. —

Mary Walrath-Holdridge, USA TODAY, 30 June 2023

Noun

There’s Cream, of course, but most of the music cues are deeper cuts (though nothing is more vital to the soundtrack than the growl of those engines). —

Peter Debruge, Variety, 2 Sep. 2023 These may include the sounds that an animal uses to communicate with others of its kind — or the growls a predator makes. —

Marisa Sloan, Discover Magazine, 16 June 2023 Many New Yorkers revel in the city’s ambient rumble — the thump of a bass echoing between buildings, the slap of domino tiles on a card table, the growl of off-road bikes rushing down the block. —

Yessenia Funes, Curbed, 11 Aug. 2023 The answer wasn’t so much a word as a growl and maybe a gallon of green, sticky vomit. —

Kory Grow, Rolling Stone, 7 Aug. 2023 Howie Mandel says cartoon band Noodle and Bun is 'most amazing thing ever' Who needs a rock 'n' roll growl, when a melodious bark will do just the trick? —

USA TODAY, 2 Aug. 2023 The boar announced its presence with a growl and charged the two men through the brush. —

Cameron Evans, Outdoor Life, 6 July 2023 Keitel begins the scene with an intimidating growl and ends it in rueful melancholy. —

Joe Reid, Vulture, 26 June 2023 Beneath Gareth Fry’s low growl of a soundscape, the company gathers one by one to claw against it before sending it crashing to the ground. —

David Benedict, Variety, 15 June 2023 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'growl.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.