What does bowwowing mean?
"Bowwowing" is the present participle of the informal verb "bowwow," an English word that imitates the sound of a dog's bark. In its most literal sense, to be bowwowing is simply to bark — a usage that is playful, childlike, and now rather old-fashioned, since modern writers more often describe dogs as barking, yapping, or woofing. The word also carries a figurative sense: someone who is bowwowing is speaking loudly, boastfully, or pretentiously, all bark and no bite. This second use draws on a long tradition in which "bowwow" stood for empty or noisy talk, and it survives mainly in literary or humorous contexts. Both senses are informal, and neither is common in contemporary conversation, which makes the word a colorful but slightly archaic choice. It belongs to a family of onomatopoeic animal words that English speakers have coined over centuries, echoing the way children first learn to name the sounds around them.
verb (present participle / gerund)The present participle of "bowwow": to bark like a dog, or to speak in a loud, pompous, or pretentious manner.
- To bark or make the sound of a dog barking.
- To talk in a loud, boastful, or pretentious way.
"The dogs spent the whole night bowwowing at the mail carrier."
"The puppies were bowwowing excitedly when the doorbell rang."
"He was bowwowing about his promotion all evening until nobody would listen anymore."
Before "woof" caught on, English speakers agreed that dogs say "bowwow" — and calling someone's speech "bowwow" has meant calling it all bark ever since.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of bowwowing
The verb "bowwow" derives from the noun "bowwow," an onomatopoeic imitation of a dog's bark that appeared in English by the late sixteenth century. The noun came to mean both the sound itself and, by extension, noisy or pompous talk, and the verb followed with matching senses: to bark, and to speak boastfully. The participial form "bowwowing" simply applies standard English inflection to this verb. Its closest relatives are other echoic animal-noise words rather than words sharing a foreign root, since its origin is native English sound symbolism.
Related word forms
How bowwowing is actually used
Informal and somewhat dated; the onomatopoeic sense is playful or childlike, while the figurative sense of pompous talking appears mostly in older literary usage. Rare in contemporary everyday speech.
Easily confused with bowwowing
"Bowing" means bending the head or body in respect or playing a bowed string instrument, while "bowwowing" means barking like a dog or speaking pompously.