v. dial. and local U.S. Also jour, jowr. [? Onomatopœic.] intr. a. To growl; to scold; to mutter or grumble in an undertone. b. To use a boorish dialect with a growling sound. Hence Jowering vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1628. R. Hayman, Quodlibets, II. 37. You may our cursings, swearing, iouring mend.
1724–42. De Foe, Tour Gt. Brit. (ed. 3), I. 303. As this Way of boorish Speech is in Ireland called the Brogue upon the Tongue, so here ’tis named Jouring…. The Difference is not so much in the Orthography, as in the Tone and Accent; their abridging the Speech, Cham, for I am; Chill, for I will … and the like.
1746. Exmoor Scolding, 26 (E. D. S.). Ya purting, tatchy, stertling, jowering, prinking, mincing Theng.
1821. Scott, Kenilw., xx. [She] answered his petition … with a volley of vituperation, couched in what is there called the jowring dialect.
1879. Miss Jackson, Shropsh. Word-bk., Jour, obsols., to mutter, or grumble in an undertone; generally used in the participial form—jouring.
1883. C. F. Smith, Southernisms, in Trans. Amer. Philol. Soc., 50. Jower or jour, quite common in the South in the sense of persistent quarrelling or scolding.
1888. Elworthy, W. Som. Word-bk., Jowering, growling, grumbling.
