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From Middle English oule, owle, from Old English ūle, from Proto-West Germanic *uwwilā, from Proto-Germanic *uwwalǭ (compare West Frisian ûle, Dutch uil, Danish and Norwegian ugle, German Eule), diminutive of *uwwǭ (“eagle-owl”) (compare German Uhu), of imitative origin or a variant of *ūfaz, *ūfǭ (compare Old English ūf or hūf, Swedish uv (“horned owl”), Bavarian Auf),^[1] from Proto-Indo-European *up- (compare Latvian ũpis (“eagle-owl”), Czech úpět (“to wail, howl”), Avestan 𐬎𐬟𐬌𐬌𐬈𐬌𐬨𐬌 (ufiieimi, “to call out”).^[2][3] A Germanic variant *uwwilǭ was the source of Old High German ūwila (German Eule).

• IPA^(key): /aʊ(ə)l/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aʊl, -aʊəl

owl (plural owls)

2. Any of various birds of prey of the order Strigiformes that are primarily nocturnal and have forward-looking, binocular vision, limited eye movement, and good hearing. [from 8th c.]
3. (by extension) A person seen as having owl-like characteristics, especially appearing wise or serious, or being nocturnally active. [from 14th c.]

   Antonym: lark

4. An owl pigeon. [from 18th c.]
5. (politics, uncommon) A politician with moderate views that are neither hawkish nor dovish.
6. Any of various nymphalid butterflies, especially in the genus Caligo, having large eyespots on the wings.

• hoot
• to-whit, to-whoo
• whoo
• who
• hoo
• hoohoo

• owl on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

owl (third-person singular simple present owls, present participle owling, simple past and past participle owled)

1. (archaic, intransitive) To smuggle contraband goods.

• 'low, LOW, Low, WoL, low, low%