Careful Words

owl (n.)

owl (v.)

owl (adv.)

A falcon, towering in her pride of place,

Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kill'd.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 4.

It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman,

Which gives the stern'st good-night.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 2.

  Do you think I was born in a wood to be afraid of an owl?

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745): Polite Conversation. Dialogue i.