howls

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of howl.

   A lone wolf howls at the edge of the frozen lake.

   The crowd howls with delight whenever the home team scores.

   Note

   Usually the verb stands alone or takes a preposition: a dog howls at the moon, a crowd howls with delight. It can also carry a direct object, meaning to utter something with an outcry, as in he howls his objections. That transitive use is the one learners tend to miss. The -s marks a single present-tense subject; with I, you, we or they the form is plain howl.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of howl.

   The wolves' howls echoed across the frozen valley.

   Her punchline was met with howls of laughter from the audience.

   Note

   The same spelling does double duty: as a plural noun it counts the cries themselves, while the present-tense verb describes someone making one. The plural is where the figurative uses gather, as in howls of laughter, howls of protest and howls of complaint, with the of-phrase naming what the noise expresses. A determiner or adjective in front (the, their, loud) marks the noun.

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