v. Obs. exc. north. dial. Also 4 wral, 6 wrall, 7 wralle; 5, 7 wrawle, 6, 8 wraul, 7 wraule, 6– wrawl (9 dial. rawwl); also 4 (9 dial.) warl. [Imitative. Cf. Norw. vraula, raula; also Da. vraale, vræle, Sw. vråla, LG. wrâlen, to squall, bellow, scream.]
1. intr. To utter an inarticulate noise or sound; to bawl, squall.
c. 1440. Ipomydon, 1835. Thus he wrawled & wroth a way, One word to hyr he nolde not say.
1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 191. Bralling fooles that wrall for euerie wrong.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 152. Man alone … she hath laid all naked upon the bare earth,… to cry and wraule presently from the very first houre that he is borne into this world.
1606. Bryskett, Civ. Life, 53. Euer crying and wrawling for they wote not what.
c. 1780. M. Lonsdale, in S. Gilpin, Songs Cumbld. (1866), 276. Guidman stuid wraulin at her lug, An’ ca’d her many a garrick.
1811. Willan, in Archaeol. (1814), XVII. 163. Wrawling, quarrelling, or contending with a loud voice.
1859. B. Brierly, Daisy Nook, 49. A lot o’ dhrunken chaps rawlin’ wi’ one another.
† 2. Of a cat: = WRAW v. Obs.–1
1596. Spenser, F. Q., VI. xii. 27. Some were … of cats, that wrawling still did cry.
Hence Wrawler, one who brawls or squalls; Wrawling vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 37/2. Blaffoorde or *warlare [Winch. MS. wrawlere]…, traulus.
1579–80. North, Plutarch (1595), 55. Neither were … [the children] cryers, wrallers, or vnhappy children.
a. 1530. Heywood, Johan & Tyb (Brandl.), 365. She wyll neuer leue her *wrawlyng.
1570. Googe, Popish Kingd., II. (1880), 21 b. Children there that lye, And fill their eares with wrawling all the night.
1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 1219. Cries and wrawlings of an infinite number of children.
1623. New & Merry Prognost., E 2. Beggars loue brawling, And wretches loue wrawling.
1573. A. Anderson, Expos. of Benedict., 30. To quiet & make stil his wanton and *wrauling cryes.
1619. R. West, Bk. Demeanor, 60, in Babees Bk. Nor practize snuffingly to speake, for that doth imitate The brutish Storke … and the wralling cat.
c. 1620. Welsh Embass., IV. 1510. [The women] to still their wrawlinge bastards cry out, husht [etc.].
