prowl

(proul)

v. prowled, prowl·ing, prowls

v.tr.

To roam through stealthily, as in search of prey or plunder: prowled the alleys of the city after dark.

v.intr.

To rove furtively or with predatory intent: cats prowling through the neighborhood.

The act or an instance of prowling.

Idiom:

on the prowl

Actively looking for something: salespeople on the prowl for better jobs.

[Middle English prollen, to move about.]

prowl′er n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

prowl•er

(ˈpraʊ lər)

n.

1. one that prowls.

2. one who goes stealthily about with an unlawful intention, as to commit theft.

[1510–20]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

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

sneak, stalker

interloper, intruder, trespasser - someone who intrudes on the privacy or property of another without permission

prowler

noun

One who behaves in a stealthy, furtive way:

sneak, sneaker, weasel.

Translations

جَوّال

-čkatulák

listetyvvindueskiggervoldsmand

Herumtreiber

rôdeur

flækingur, ræningi

predone

sinsi sinsi dolaşan kimse

潜行动物潜行者

prowler

[ˈpraʊləʳ] N → merodeador(a) m/f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

prowler

[ˈpraʊlə^r] n → rôdeur/euse m/f

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

prowler

n → Herumtreiber(in) m(f); (= peeping Tom) → Spanner m (inf); he heard a prowler outside → er hörte, wie draußen jemand herumschlich

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

prowler

[ˈpraʊləʳ] n there was a prowler in the garden → c'era un tipo sospetto che si aggirava in giardino

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

prowl

(praul) verb

to move about stealthily in order to steal, attack, catch etc. Tigers were prowling in the jungle.

ˈprowler noun

be on the prowl

to be prowling. Pickpockets are always on the prowl.

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

A moon so little less than full that the eye could barely detect its slight tendency to become concave, shone serenely, creating a desirable combination of black shadows where the prowler might hide and great stretches of light in which the prowler might reveal his wickedness without disguise.

It was not for some time that he was able to give that selfless attention to exterior objects which is the prowler's chief asset.

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On frosty nights the humane Negro prowler would warm the end of the plank and put it up under the cold claws of chickens roosting in a tree; a drowsy hen would step on to the comfortable board, softly clucking her gratitude, and the prowler would dump her into his bag, and later into his stomach, perfectly sure that in taking this trifle from the man who daily robbed him of an inestimable treasure--his liberty--he was not committing any sin that God would remember against him in the Last Great Day.

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I did not dare follow him there beneath the moonlight, since it best suited my plans not to interrupt his--I wished him to reach his destination unsuspecting, that I might learn just where that destination lay and the business that awaited the night prowler there.

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There were then in circulation, strange stories of a surly monk, a nocturnal prowler about the streets of Paris, and they recurred confusedly to his memory.

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No strange robber, no treacherous host conniving at the plunder of his guests, or stealing to their beds to kill them in their sleep, no nightly prowler, however terrible and cruel, could have awakened in her bosom half the dread which the recognition of her silent visitor inspired.

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When this is exhausted, they must perish; though sometimes their sufferings are abridged by hostile prowlers who may visit the deserted camp.

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He regretted that he had not waited the night before until the prowlers had entered.

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One of these prowlers, more adventurous than the rest, approached a fire round which a group of Nez Perces were gambling with the most intense eagerness.

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Werper feared these prowlers of the night; but infinitely more he feared the just wrath of the human beast sleeping at his side.

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I was startled to discover how many night prowlers had collected in the darkness of the street in such a short time and without my being aware of it.

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Fewer night prowlers threatened them, and the men were commenting upon the fact that the farther north they had traveled the smaller the number of all species of animals became, though it was still present in what would have seemed appalling plenitude in any other part of the world.

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