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Literary notes about PROWL (AI summary)

In literature, the word "prowl" is frequently employed to evoke a sense of stealth and deliberate, sometimes predatory movement. It paints scenes where both animals and humans engage in quiet, secretive roaming—whether it is a naturalistic depiction of a lion-like creature stalking its territory ([1], [2], [3]) or a metaphor for a character’s aimless yet purposeful wandering, as seen when a figure roams through a palace or even along the streets at night ([4], [5], [6]). This versatile word can capture the dangerous thrill of a nocturnal hunt ([7], [8]), while at other times it hints at a more reflective, almost mischievous exploration of one's surroundings ([9], [10]). Through such varied uses, "prowl" enriches narrative texture by blending literal pursuit with an exploration of inner, elusive drives.
  1. The moment we were under way I began to prowl about the great steamer and fill myself with joy.
    — from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain
  2. A liver and white spaniel on the prowl slinks after him, growling.
    — from Ulysses by James Joyce
  3. April and May are the months when the catchpoles are out on the prowl.
    — from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer
  4. Why not?” He came to prowl about his, Jean Valjean’s, life!
    — from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
  5. How I found time to haunt Putney, I am sure I don’t know; but I contrived, by some means or other, to prowl about the neighbourhood pretty often.
    — from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
  6. If I should prowl about the streets a long time, don't be uneasy; I shall reappear in the morning.
    — from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
  7. This that we hunt from our village is a tiger, too, a man-eater, and he never cease to prowl.
    — from Dracula by Bram Stoker
  8. Much of the site of the old city is covered with tangled jungle-growth, through which chetahs and other animals sometimes prowl.
    — from Among the Burmans: A Record of Fifteen Years of Work and its Fruitage by Henry Park Cochrane
  9. But if it kept her from being seasick it’s a mercy I did prowl, isn’t it?
    — from Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery
  10. I had an idea she took another quick prowl through my mind but I felt too sick to complain.
    — from Star-Crossed Lover by William W. Stuart

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