owling
Pluralowlings
- 1A small, young, or newly hatched owl.
A single owling peered out from the hollow trunk at dusk.
The owlings called softly for food once the night grew dark.
Similarowlet
Note
This word is built on a different suffix from its look-alikes. It is owl plus -ling, the diminutive of duckling and gosling, not the -ing of the owl-catching pursuit. Writers often reach for it half-improvising. The Canadian Forestry Association's Forest and Outdoors of 1940 offers "Greatlings or Hornlings or Owlings or whatever Great Horned Owl babies are called." Owlet is the alternative word, and the plural is owlings.
- 2The activity of trapping or catching owls, pursued as a branch of birding.
Owling demands patience, sharp ears, and a tolerance for cold nights.
The bird ringers took up owling so they could band and release the birds safely.
Note
The literal pursuit, built from owl plus -ing, the suffix that turns a creature into an activity. Like most -ing nouns of this kind it is uncountable: you take up owling or go owling, but you never do an owling. The same formation names the sheep-smuggling trade, though there the owl marks the hour rather than the quarry.
- 3An internet craze, related to planking, in which a person is photographed or filmed squatting down in an unusual location.
Owling spread across social media as friends shared photos of themselves squatting in odd spots.
He attempted owling atop a parked car, perching with his hands tucked between his feet.
- 4Taking sheep or wool abroad from England secretly and against the law.
Owling thrived along the Kent coast, where wool fetched far higher prices overseas.
Smugglers caught owling faced heavy fines and the loss of their boats.
Note
A trade named for its hours: the sheep were run out under cover of darkness, when owls call, and so the smuggling took the bird's name. The word is historical. It describes the trade as it was carried on in the past and belongs in accounts of smugglers and their era. Despite the shared spelling, it has nothing to do with catching owls.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of owling apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origins
From owl + -ing. The smuggling of sheep was called this because it was done at night, when owls call.
From owl + -ling.