- 1
When a cat wants a mate, or when two cats meet and do not like each other, they make a long, high, ugly cry — not a soft , but a scream that can fill a whole street at night. To caterwaul is to make that kind of noise. People use it about real cats, and they stretch it too: a singer who is loud and badly out of tune might caterwaul; so might a group shouting and arguing in high, ugly voices. It is never a compliment. The word feels a little old and a little comic; you will meet it in books, reviews, and jokes more than in everyday talk at the shop. Though actually it is a simple build: an old word for “cat” stuck to an old word for “cry like a cat.”
像貓一樣嚎叫；尖聲亂叫
組成From Middle English caterwrawen: cater (“cat”) + wrawen / wrawlen (“cry like a cat”), the same idea as cat + waul. Low German has katerwaulen (“to cry like a cat”); Middle Dutch cater meant “tomcat” (Dutch kater).
同家族的字
- catthe first piece — Middle English cater meant cat
- waulthe second piece — to cry like a cat
- caterwaulingthis verb with -ing: the noise, or the act of making it
原始詞典資料4 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
caterwaulverb/ˈkæt.ə.wɔːl/
- 1
To cry as cats in heat; to make a harsh, offensive noise.
- 2
To have a noisy argument, like cats.
caterwaulnoun/ˈkæt.ə.wɔːl/
- 1
A yowling.
- 2
A noisy quarrel.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。