Release the Hounds!
Belling: The Roaring of Animals
Animal cries, in various situations.
Belling comes from at least the 1400s and has been used to describe the bellowing of animals. The OED and other dictionaries usually also mention the specific sounds made by deer during the rutting (mating) season. But it clearly can be applied to various situations of barking, yowling, braying, bleating, etc. Even human crying, though that sense is considered more obscure.
My other unabridged dictionary specifies that it pertains to the general cacophony of hounds at a fox hunt (hence the pic I chose for the top of this article). But, the OED doesn’t seem to mention that, which makes me question some things about the potentially subjective nature of dictionaries.
The OED notes a usage by Robert Bulwer-Lytton in his work “What Will He Do With It”:
… He resumed the whistle, — a clearer, louder, wilder tune, — that of a lively hunting-song. The deer turned quickly round, — uneasy, restless, tossed its antlers, and bounded through the fern. Waife again changed the key of his primitive music, — a melancholy belliny note, like the belling itself of a melancholy hart, but more modulated into sweetness. The deer arrested its flight, and, lured by the mimic sound, returned towards the water-side, slowly and statelily. … (Full…
