growls

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of growl.

   The old bear growls low whenever cubs wander too close to its den.

   My empty stomach growls loudly during the afternoon meetings.

   Note

   The present-tense form that goes with a singular subject: the bear growls, my stomach growls. It works with or without an object. A dog simply growls, but a person growls a warning or growls an answer, putting words into that rough sound. Musicians use it too: a player growls a note on a wind instrument, or the instrument itself growls.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of growl.

   A series of deep growls echoed through the cave before the animal appeared.

   The singer's gravelly growls gave the chorus its raw, defiant edge.

   Note

   Each growl is a single, countable burst of sound, so the plural suits a run of them: an animal's warning growls, a hungry stomach's growls, the low growls a player draws from a wind instrument, the death growls of a vocalist. The same spelling is also the present-tense verb, and the grammar tells them apart: in "the dog growls" it is a verb, while in "the dog's growls" it is a noun.

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