owlet

From owl +‎ -let. Compare howlet.

owlet (plural owlets)

1. diminutive of owl
   • 1595, George Peele, The Old Wives’ Tale, The Malone Society Reprints, 1908, lines 51-54,

     And in faith Sir unlesse your hospitalitie doe releeve us, wee are like to wander with a sorrowfull hey ho, among the owlets, & Hobgoblins of the Forrest […]

   • c. 1605, William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act IV, Scene 1,

     Adder’s fork and blind-worm’s sting,

     Lizard’s leg and owlet’s wing,

     For a charm of powerful trouble,

     Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

   • 1798, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Fears in Solitude, London: J. Johnson, pp. 4-5,

     […] and bold with joy,

     Forth from his dark and lonely hiding-place

     (Portentous sight) the owlet, ATHEISM,

     Sailing on obscene wings athwart the noon,

     Drops his blue-fringed lids, and holds them close,

     And, hooting at the glorious sun in heaven,

     Cries out, “where is it?”

2. A young owl; owling.
3. One of a species of small owls, as Athene noctua.

• owling, howlet, houlet

• owlet moth

• owlet in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

• Towle, towel