Phrase guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
No pronunciation record was provided for this word.
noun
The bullfrog, or the sound made by it.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: US, archaic, dialectal
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
History
From "blood 'n' 'oun's", from "blood and wounds". Several sources, including Harrison Garman's 1892 A Synopsis of the Reptiles and Amphibians of Illinois, say the frog is so called because "its peculiar bass notes [...] have a fancied resemblance to the expression" blood and wounds and other similar-sounding and similarly imposing phrases like "be drowned".
