bawl v OED ~ v 'to give mouth or tongue as an animal' obs (1440-1753); EDD v 1, 2 'cry out', 'low.' Of an animal or bird, esp a young seal or 'whitecoat,' to squall, cry out, wail.
   1842 JUKES i, 270 [The young seal] was of a dirty white colour, with short close fur, large dark expressive eyes, and it paddled and walloped about the deck fierce and bawling. 1924 ENGLAND 6 Wouldn't dis be a big night to year a whitecoat bawl! I wish't we was pickin' up fat, by's! Pickin' up pans! 1933 GREENE 74-5 The newly born 'Cat' [is] pitiful and appealing in appearance, and curiously human in its baby crying—'bawling' as the sealers call it. 1937 DEVINE 69 [proverb] When a snipe bawls the lobster crawls. 1955 DOYLE (ed) 11 "A Noble Fleet of Sealers": When the white coats bawl, he'll risk his all. P 217-64 [proverb] The cow soon forgets her bawling calf. C 69-16 When we were almost asleep some sheep began to bawl outside the house. 'We'll have the rain tomorrow, just listen to the sheep bawlin' outside,' said my mother. 1977 Inuit Land Use 254 Harp seals ... travel and feed in herds, or skulls, as they are called locally. 'They bawl to one another.'

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