Library / English Dictionary

PROWL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of prowling (walking about in a stealthy manner)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("prowl" is a kind of...):

walk; walking (the act of traveling by foot)

Derivation:

prowl (move about in or as if in a predatory manner)

prowl (loiter about, with no apparent aim)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Move about in or as if in a predatory manner

Example:

The suspicious stranger prowls the streets of the town

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "prowl" is one way to...):

walk (use one's feet to advance; advance by steps)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s PP

Sentence examples:

The men prowl the area for animals

The men prowl for animals in the area

Derivation:

prowl (the act of prowling (walking about in a stealthy manner))

prowler (someone who prowls or sneaks about; usually with unlawful intentions)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Loiter about, with no apparent aim

Synonyms:

lurch; prowl

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Hypernyms (to "prowl" is one way to...):

footle; hang around; lallygag; linger; loaf; loiter; lollygag; lounge; lurk; mess about; mill about; mill around; tarry (be about)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

prowl (the act of prowling (walking about in a stealthy manner))

Credits

 Context examples: 

How I found time to haunt Putney, I am sure I don't know; but I contrived, by some means or other, to prowl about the neighbourhood pretty often.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Your man-eater, as they of India call the tiger who has once tasted blood of the human, care no more for the other prey, but prowl unceasing till he get him.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

At this the negro took heart of grace, and picking up his dagger again he came stealing with prowling step and murderous eye, while the two swayed backwards and forwards, staggering this way and that.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He was the Wild—the unknown, the terrible, the ever-menacing, the thing that prowled in the darkness around the fires of the primeval world when they, cowering close to the fires, were reshaping their instincts, learning to fear the Wild out of which they had come, and which they had deserted and betrayed.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

He was a different man from the limp and lounging figure in the mouse-coloured dressing-gown who had prowled so restlessly only a few hours before round the fog-girt room.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But, sooner than have him punished for his offences (as he would be if he prowled about in this country), I give him more money than I can afford, at intervals when he reappears, to go away.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

But I never, happily for me no doubt, made a single acquaintance, or spoke to any of the many boys whom I saw daily in going to the warehouse, in coming from it, and in prowling about the streets at meal-times.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

This gave my aunt such unspeakable satisfaction, that I believe she took a delight in prowling up and down, with her bonnet insanely perched on the top of her head, at times when Mrs. Crupp was likely to be in the way.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Although I left the office at half past three, and was prowling about the place of appointment within a few minutes afterwards, the appointed time was exceeded by a full quarter of an hour, according to the clock of St. Andrew's, Holborn, before I could muster up sufficient desperation to pull the private bell-handle let into the left-hand door-post of Mr. Waterbrook's house.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It was a great jest of his, I recollect, to pretend that he couldn't keep his teeth from chattering, whenever mention was made of an Alguazill in connexion with the adventures of Gil Blas; and I remember that when Gil Blas met the captain of the robbers in Madrid, this unlucky joker counterfeited such an ague of terror, that he was overheard by Mr. Creakle, who was prowling about the passage, and handsomely flogged for disorderly conduct in the bedroom.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)