What does bawling mean?
Bawling is the present participle of the verb 'bawl', meaning to cry or shout loudly and without restraint. The word covers two closely related behaviours: the noisy, uncontrolled weeping of someone in distress — most often a young child — and loud, forceful shouting, typically born of anger or used to reprimand someone. It carries strong connotations of volume and emotional excess; a bawling baby, for example, is not merely fussing but crying at full voice. The term is informal to neutral in register and appears frequently in everyday speech and narrative writing. A well-established idiom, chiefly in North American English, is 'to bawl someone out', meaning to scold them severely. Learners should be careful not to confuse 'bawling' with the identically pronounced but unrelated 'bowling', the sport of rolling balls at pins. The word's vividness makes it a useful choice when writers want to convey raw, unfiltered noise and emotion rather than quiet tears.
Present participle of 'bawl': to cry out loudly and unrestrainedly, as in distress or anger.
"He stormed out of the meeting, still bawling about the unfair decision."
Also used in the idiom 'bawl someone out', meaning to scold severely (chiefly US).
The action of bawling; loud, unrestrained crying or shouting.
"The bawling of the calves could be heard across the field."
As a noun, 'bawling' can also describe the loud lowing of cattle.
One letter separates 'bawling' your eyes out from 'bowling' a strike — and spellcheck won't always save you.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of bawling
The verb 'bawl' dates back to Middle English, where it meant to bark or howl like a dog, and its earliest sense was applied to animals before extending to human crying and shouting. Its ultimate origin is uncertain, though it may be of imitative or Scandinavian origin, and it has carried its modern sense of crying loudly since roughly the seventeenth century. It should not be confused with the homophone 'bowling', which derives from an entirely separate root connected to the word 'ball'.
Related word forms
How bawling is actually used
Informal to neutral register; strongly connotes loudness and loss of composure. In American English, 'to bawl someone out' is an established idiom meaning to scold harshly.
Easily confused with bawling
'Bowling' is the sport of rolling a ball down a lane at pins, while 'bawling' means crying or shouting loudly.