PROWL

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does prowl mean? 

• PROWL (noun)
  The noun PROWL has 1 sense:

1. the act of prowling (walking about in a stealthy manner)

  Familiarity information: PROWL used as a noun is very rare.

• PROWL (verb)
  The verb PROWL has 2 senses:

1. move about in or as if in a predatory manner

2. loiter about, with no apparent aim

  Familiarity information: PROWL used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PROWL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of prowling (walking about in a stealthy manner)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("prowl" is a kind of...):

walk; walking (the act of traveling by foot)

Derivation:

prowl (move about in or as if in a predatory manner)

prowl (loiter about, with no apparent aim)

• PROWL (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they prowl    ... he / she / it prowls   
Past simple: prowled   
Past participle: prowled   
-ing form: prowling   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Move about in or as if in a predatory manner

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Context example:

The suspicious stranger prowls the streets of the town

Hypernyms (to "prowl" is one way to...):

walk (use one's feet to advance; advance by steps)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s PP

Sentence examples:

The men prowl the area for animals
The men prowl for animals in the area

Derivation:

prowl (the act of prowling (walking about in a stealthy manner))

prowler (someone who prowls or sneaks about; usually with unlawful intentions)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Loiter about, with no apparent aim

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Synonyms:

lurch; prowl

Hypernyms (to "prowl" is one way to...):

footle; hang around; lallygag; linger; loaf; loiter; lollygag; lounge; lurk; mess about; mill about; mill around; tarry (be about)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

prowl (the act of prowling (walking about in a stealthy manner))

 Context examples 

He prowled about the cabin while the sled-dogs slept, and the first night- visitor to the cabin fought him off with a club until Weedon Scott came to the rescue.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Several times in the course of the night I heard him prowling about the house.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

And the natural consequence is, as anybody but a baby might have foreseen, that he prowls and wanders.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

This that we hunt from our village is a tiger, too, a man-eater, and he never cease to prowl.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Now and then great shadows loomed up for an instant and were gone—great, silent shadows which seemed to prowl upon padded feet.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

From Providence to Burgundy we are beset by every prowling hireling in Christendom, who rend and tear the country which you have left too weak to guard her own marches.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Then the crowd was upon Buck, and he was driven off; but while a surgeon checked the bleeding, he prowled up and down, growling furiously, attempting to rush in, and being forced back by an array of hostile clubs.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

An hour later he decided that Brissenden was a boor as well, what of the way he prowled about from one room to another, staring at the pictures or poking his nose into books and magazines he picked up from the table or drew from the shelves.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

But there were times when even a moose-bird failed to affect him, and those were times when he felt himself to be in danger from some other prowling meat hunter.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

He prowled about with this equipment himself, but it was a poor show of plants which he would bring back of an evening.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)