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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Howling wilderness

Howl \Howl\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Howled; p. pr. & vb. n. Howling.] [OE. houlen, hulen; akin to D. huilen, MHG. hiulen, hiuweln, OHG. hiuwil[=o]n to exult, h?wo owl, Dan. hyle to howl.]

  1. To utter a loud, protracted, mournful sound or cry, as dogs and wolves often do.

    And dogs in corners set them down to howl.
    --Drayton.

    Methought a legion of foul fiends Environ'd me about, and howled in my ears.
    --Shak.

  2. To utter a sound expressive of distress; to cry aloud and mournfully; to lament; to wail.

    Howl ye, for the day of the Lord is at hand.
    --Is. xiii. 6.

  3. To make a noise resembling the cry of a wild beast.

    Wild howled the wind.
    --Sir W. Scott.

    Howling monkey. (Zo["o]l.) See Howler, 2.

    Howling wilderness, a wild, desolate place inhabited only by wild beasts.
    --Deut. xxxii. 10.

Usage examples of "howling wilderness".

They crossed the del Norte by night and waded up out of the shallow sandy ford into a howling wilderness.

I didn't hazard a guess as to how difficult Fergus might find it to carve a farm and homestead out of a howling wilderness with one hand, no matter how fertile the ground.

Just because you climb a few tame mountains and catch stocked trout in Oregon you think you can be a female Francis of Assisi in a howling wilderness!

Theyd simply sent him and twenty others out to meet two of their numberand the dog brothersin the middle of this howling wilderness, and the palpable anxiety which possessed the people theyd met was enough to make anyone nervous.

They'd simply sent him and twenty others out to meet two of their number-and the dog brothers-in the middle of this howling wilderness, and the palpable anxiety which possessed the people they'd met was enough to make anyone nervous.

Buildings have been burnt down, farms laid waste, and Santa Anna appears determined to verify his threat, and convert the blooming paradise into a howling wilderness.

But there is just one outlet, the Great Mutar, which flows into the Tassaleyo Forest and is the only corridor into that howling wilderness.

All the rest is howling wilderness that's never been properly mapped.

Marooned in the center of a howling wilderness, not even sure where we had been heading, the winding trail our only orientation and the only place to flee to, if we could flee, back to that great white city, which in its way was as much of a howling wilderness as this.

Whatever consolation the absence of catamount in a dark, drenched, and howling wilderness can impart, that I experienced.