Gawling

Part of speech: verb, noun

Definitions

1. Making a loud, wailing cry or howl, as a person or animal does in distress, in some Scottish and northern English dialects
2. Uttering a long, loud, mournful sound, particularly a howl or a bawling cry of distress
3. Crying out in a loud, drawn-out wail, a regional term for howling or bawling noisily

Etymology: Across northern Britain, "gawl" meant to bawl, howl, or cry out loudly, and "gawling" is the form of that verb used for the act itself. The verb is probably borrowed from Old Norse "gaula", meaning to bellow, which reached the north of England and Scotland through Viking-age settlement. The same sound-pattern appears in related Scots words for noisy crying, so the sense of harsh, uncontrolled noise seems to have stayed close to the original. The word is strictly regional and has mostly faded from everyday speech, which is why it is often misread as a variant of "gawky" or "gawp". Its history is less clear than that of the core verb, so the Norse link should be treated as the most likely explanation rather than settled fact.