adj. (common).—A general intensitive. E.g., HOWLING-SWELL = a man in the extreme of fashion; HOWLING-LIE = a gross falsehood; HOWLING-BAGS = trousers extravagant in cut or pattern; HOWLING-CAD, etc.
1865. G. A. SALA, A Trip to Barbary, ch. vii. The hotel at Marseilles was full of our countrymen of the order known at Lane’s and Limmer’s as HOWLING SWELLS.
1887. Household Words, 11 June, 116. Let’s hook it; that Jenny Morris is such an HOWLING SWELL that she won’t wait for any one.
1889. Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette, 8 Feb. The Hon. Juggins was what is popularly known as a HOWLING SWELL.
1892. T. A. GUTHRIE (‘F. Anstey’), Mr. Punch’s Model Music-Hall Songs & Dramas, 146. And all the while your heart was given to a HOWLING CAD?
