Scowl
Verb
Pronunciation and accent: skaUl
Etymology: of uncertain origin
Third-person singular simple present: she/he scowls
Indicative past, past participle: scowled
Present participle: scowling.
Intransitively:
First definition: to manifest, either intentionally or involuntarily, resentment, ill-humour, anger, hatred, through a grimace; to look with a scowl
Synonyms: to lour, lower, to look angry
Antonyms: to smile, wink, blow a kiss
It may be approximately translated by imbronciarsi, in Italian; hacer mala cara, in Spanish; bouder, in French.
They were armed with large navy revolvers, which they wore in belts, and their clothing was quite good. The tall man, who seemed to be the leader, related an account of a deer-hunt in which he had participated, in Fayette county, Illinois, on the Kaskaskia river, and when he mentioned the place, the others scowled and winked at him, as if to stop him.
Allan Pinkerton (Mississippi Outlaws and the Detectives)
Two women and a man sat among the many packages behind. On the box-seat, next the driver, was a lanky youth, peculiarly white and unhealthy of visage. Percival stared at him. In envy perhaps of the sturdy and glowing health of the starer, the lanky youth scowled back, and lowering his jaw pulled a grimace with an ease and repulsiveness […].
Arthur Stuart-Menteth Hutchinson (The Happy Warrior)
***With the prepositions at, on, or upon, followed by a noun (or a pronoun) designative of the person or thing at which the scowler looks his anger, resentment, etc.:
"The chances is he'll die on the road," croaked Happy Jack tactlessly, and they scowled at him for voicing the fear they were trying to ignore.
Bertha Muzzy Bower (The Happy Family)
Captain Peterson scowled at me, for I was disgracing his ship.
William Thomes (On land and sea)
[…] he scowled at me with a countenance indicative of anything but welcome, and did not seem in the least more pleased when Ethel entreated her friend Laura not to take her bonnet, not to think of going away so soon.
William Makepeace Thackeray (The Newcomes)
[…] he scowled at us for daring to express a wish to proceed, and looked altogether so formidable, that it was a relief to see him rattle out of the courtyard, as he laughed contemptuously at our despair.
Laurence Oliphant (The Russian Shores…)
[…] when I was sitting with the Mitchings at dessert, this letter arrived. Mr. Noel Stanton knew well enough when we should be comfortable and happy over our wine, and he timed the delivery of his letter accordingly.
Mr. Mitching opened it, [… regarded] it through his gold-rimmed glasses, balanced them on his nose at it, scowled at it, coughed at it, and looked exceedingly surprised at it.
Joseph Hatton (Christopher Kenrick)
[The painter] often, we are told, after he had proceeded to some length with a work, became suddenly dissatisfied with it. He scowled at it, gnashed his teeth, and slashed it into fibre.
Thomas Craddock (Charles Lamb)
The light in the little shop was dim. The shoemaker's fat assistant scowled at it, and got up and [… searched] for a match and lighted the gas-jet on the wall.
Jennette Lee (The taste of apples)
He scowled on them; and they scowled on him in return.
William Godwin (Cloudesley)
[…] it was particularly observed that he kissed those with affection whom he considered as his adherents, and scowled on those who had been the leaders in the late insurrections.
Agnes Strickland (The Lives of the Queens of Scotland)
The steamer that took our travellers from Port Royal to the coast of Florida seemed to be a thing of mystery. Its captain was a severe-looking person, who scowled on the first officer, who scowled on the second, who transmitted the scowl to the third.
Francis Underwood (Man proposes)
No sooner had he crossed the border of this domain when two guards seized him and [… took] him before the Grand Gal- lipoot of the Growleywogs, who scowled upon him ferociously and asked him why he dared intrude upon his territory.
Lyman Frank Baum (The emerald city of Oz)
[…] three fantastic pirates armed with guns. […] I was not afraid. I only felt that it was not right to steal grapes. And all the more so when the owner was around—and not only around, but with his friends around also. The villains came up and searched a bundle Dr. Birch had in his hand, and scowled upon him when they found it had nothing in it but some […] rocks from Mars Hill, and these were not contraband.
Mark Twain (The innocents abroad)
***Reciprocally:
In various quarters they met, first scowled at each other, then growled at each other.
William Howitt (Madam Dorrington)
We had scowled at each other in the morning as very young men do when they are strangers; and now, after a few hours, we were intimate friends.
Anthony Trollope (Tales of all countries)
[…] they stood scowling on each other like two cocks a-going to fight.
Theodore Fay (Norman Leslie)
Second definition: (the subject being such words as menace, anger, etc.) to manifest itself on the face of the scowler
A menace scowled upon the brow.
Washington Irving (Tales of a Traveler)
