Sowling

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Dragging or tugging a person roughly by the ears or hair, a dialect action found in Scots and northern English usage
2. Yanking someone violently by the ears, an old regional way of hauling a person along by the head
3. Pulling at a person's ears or hair with force, as a rough dialect term for hauling or dragging them about

Etymology: "Sowling" is a form of the verb "sowl," a Scots and northern English word meaning to pull or drag something by the ears or hair, or to haul roughly by the hair. The "-ing" ending marks it as a verbal form, so the word is a continuous or participial shape of that verb rather than a separate word with its own history. The verb "sowl" itself is the word to trace. Its roots are obscure, and the connection to older words for pulling is uncertain, so it is best understood as a dialect survival that stayed in regional speech while standard English let it fall away.