1
as in cries
to shed tears often while making meaningless sounds as a sign of pain or distress
he bawled for days after his dog died
Synonyms & Similar Words
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2
as in shouts
to speak so as to be heard at a distance
the mover was bawling for help as the refrigerator was about to slip out of his hands
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
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Recent Examples of bawls
Ct Jones, Rolling Stone, 11 May 2026
Verb
Willis, who is heterosexual, bawls much like Carl Bean.
—Ct Jones, Rolling Stone, 11 May 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for bawls
Verb
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Kelli cries over how solid the Mwangi unit is, praising Gerald as a father and husband and affirming that Shamea’s ass is real, while everyone else looks on, bewildered.—
Ile-Ife Okantah,
Vulture,
8 June 2026
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Ahmad Assi, 29, cries on the grave of his friend Hassan Badawi during his funeral in Choueifat.—
Chantal Da Silva,
NBC news,
27 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
The officer spots the suspect and shouts at him to get his hands out of his pockets.—
Meg Oliver,
CBS News,
20 Nov. 2025
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Greta Lee and Timothée Chalamet are both partial to the New York City Ballet hat, while Kaia Gerber cheekily shouts out Cole Escola.—
Hannah Jackson,
Vogue,
19 Nov. 2025
Noun
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As the puppy lets out another barrage of whimpers, the kitten then looks directly at the camera, as if wondering casually what's going on.—
Rachael O'Connor,
MSNBC Newsweek,
21 Oct. 2025
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Well, a University of Texas at Arlington researcher is aiming to turn barks, howls and whimpers of man’s best friend into intelligible speech — a kind of Rosetta Stone of woof.—
Miriam Fauzia,
Boston Herald,
12 Oct. 2025
Verb
-
Cannon weeps into an expansive white space that only she and Trish inhabit.—
E. Tammy Kim,
New Yorker,
17 Dec. 2025
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In her new Disney+ documentary, The End of an Era, Taylor Swift weeps while reflecting on violent attacks and threats made against her fans during the Eras Tour.—
Jennifer Zhan,
Vulture,
12 Dec. 2025
Verb
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Fieri yells in the next clip as Jesser swipes above his head to try to block his shot in an inflatable basketball game.—
Chiara Kim,
PEOPLE,
9 June 2026
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Knives are clutched, teeth are clenched, and a desperate Russian ex-pat yells loud enough for their long-dead ancestors to hear all the way back in the motherland.—
David Ehrlich,
IndieWire,
13 May 2026
Noun
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Her presence is heralded not by the sounds of howls, roars or clanking chains, but by the shutting of the door to her study, the scrape of her chair as it is pulled towards her desk, and the clanking of her type-writer keys.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
9 June 2026
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It’s installed bioacoustic cameras in Yellowstone to track wolves and analyze their howls.—
Alex Morris,
Rolling Stone,
19 May 2026
Verb
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Her endless screams and sobs echo back to the agonized wailing of The Mist’s David Drayton, who murdered his child and friends for nothing.—
Josh Weiss,
Forbes.com,
11 June 2026
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After the verdict was read, sobs and cries of distress could be heard coming from Carmack-Belton's family seated in the gallery.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
2 June 2026
Noun
-
On the floor, hundreds of people convulse to Blanco Teta’s ravenous yowls and monster-truck basslines off their July album La debacle de las divas.—
Kieran Press-Reynolds,
Pitchfork,
18 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Bawls.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/bawls. Accessed 18 Jun. 2026.
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