howlet

English

Alternative forms

• hewlet, houlet

Etymology

From Middle English howlat, howlott etc, either borrowed from French hulotte or formed from Middle English howle (form of oule) + -et. Compare modern owlet.

Noun

howlet (plural howlets)

1. An owl; an owlet.
   • 1855, Robert Browning, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, section XVIII:

     Will the night send a howlet or a bat? / I asked: when something on the dismal flat / Came to arrest my thoughts and change their train.

References

• “howlet”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• thowel