caterwauling

plural caterwaulings

1. gerundgerund of caterwaul: a sound that caterwauls.

   VVhy, here is nothing in the vvorld in this houſe but catter-vvavvling from morning till night, nothing but catter-vvavvling. Hoity toity! vvho have vve here?

   1762 December 8 (first performance), [Isaac Bickerstaffe], Love in a Village; a Comic Opera. […], 4th edition, London: […] W. Griffin; for J[ohn] Newbery, and W. Nicoll, […]; G[eorge] Kearsley, […]; T[homas] Davies, […]; and J. Walter, […], published 1763, →OCLC, Act II, scene ii, page 26

   2 more examples

   Now, I like a good tune what is a tune; but them caterwaulings and dirges that that chap Gray plays on that fiddle of his—gorry, Mr. Smith, I'd rather hear the old barn door at home squeak any day.

   1918, Eleanor H. Porter, Oh, Money! Money!

   Contrary to the caterwauling of Iran hawks, the deal Trump reached isn’t the problem — it’s simply a tacit acknowledgment of a defeat that was already baked in.

   2026 June 15, Michelle Goldberg, “The UFC 250 Was a Garish Spectacle of American Decline”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of caterwaul