Advertisement

Advertisement

View synonyms for howler

howler

[ hou-ler ]

noun

  1. a person, animal, or thing that howls.
  2. Also called howler monkey. any large, prehensile-tailed tropical American monkey of the genus Alouatta, the males of which make a howling howling noise: some species are endangered.
  3. a mistake, especially an embarrassing one in speech or writing, that evokes laughter; a very humorous mistake or a funny blunder.
  4. Informal. something that makes a piercing and often prolonged noise, as an alarm.


howler

/ ˈhaʊlə /

noun

  1. Also calledhowler monkey any large New World monkey of the genus Alouatta, inhabiting tropical forests in South America and having a loud howling cry
  2. informal.
    a glaring mistake
  3. (formerly) a device that produces a loud tone in a telephone receiver to attract attention when the receiver is incorrectly replaced
  4. a person or thing that howls


Discover More

Word History and Origins

Origin of howler1

First recorded in 1790–1800; howl + -er 1

Discover More

Example Sentences

Monkeys, including baboons, macaques and howler monkeys, make up another group of primates.

Meanwhile, the idea that kids and chores would somehow fit into a standard workweek is a howler.

“No matter the cause, she moves with such skill, she seems to know secrets I never will,” goes one of the many howlers in David Bryan and Joe DiPietro’s lay-it-on-thick score.

On one cattle ranch, he remembers, one partner knew that there was a howler monkey living on a forest island alongside several dozen workers.

The latest is maybe the biggest howler yet, bigger than even the ad that mistook Duke basketball players for UK Wildcats.

His portrait of Izzy Yanay, a partner in the highly regarded Hudson Valley Foie Gras, is a howler.

I remember, some years ago, how merrily you used to laugh about the "calamity-howler," whose habitat at that time was Kansas.

The old man was alive during the telephone call from the Grand Central, and dead when the howler was put on for the first time.

The telephone call at five minutes past twelve, and the howler put on soon afterward, checks up.

She came a fearful howler over a book which she herself has read, to my knowledge, within the last fortnight.

A reiterated word of the convulsive howler on the dock had stuck in the Tyro's mind.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement


howl downhowlet