[ad. L. ululātiōn, ululātio, noun of action f. ululāre: see prec. So obs. F. ululation, -acion.]
1. A howl or wail; a cry of lamentation.
1599. R. Linche, Fount. Anc. Fiction, O j b. Scilla,… with her vncouth and lowd barking and howling, make[s] the waters thereabout resound with an incredible report and eccho of such her strange vlulations.
1606. Dekker, Newes fr. Hell, Wks. (Grosart), II. 130. What tongue is able to relate the grones and vlulations of a wretch so distressed?
1654. R. Codrington, trans. Iustine, XII. 191. They did by instinct break forth into the sacred ululations of the God.
1689. R. Cox, Hibernia Angl., I. Appar., l 2. They bury their Dead with great Ululations or Allelews.
1812. Colman, Poet. Vagaries, Lady of Wreck, xxxi. Again the horns were fill’d by all, And ululations shook the Hall.
1827–39. De Quincey, Murder, Postscr., Wks. 1854, IV. 100. The ululation of vengeance which ascended instantaneously from the individual street.
1856. F. E. Paget, Owlet of Owlst., 169. Master Maximilian checked his ululations.
1881. Blackw. Mag., Sept., 341. The women … burst forth in a shrill scream, with a quaver or ululation resembling the note of the screech-owl.
2. The action of howling or wailing.
1799[?]. Coleridge, Mahomet, 11. The people with mad shouts Thundering now, and now with saddest ululation Flew.
1848. Lowell, Biglow P., Ser. I. ix. Introd. The laborers … are heard to shout from behind the scenes in a singular tone resembling ululation.
1886. Swinburne, Misc., 98. Who uttered in public or in private such high-pitched notes of ululation and imprecation.
