bowl
UK /bəʊl/ · US /boʊl/ noun, verb
- noun As much as is held by a bowl. “You can’t have any more soup – you’ve had three bowls already.”
- noun (cooking) A dish comprising a mix of different foods served in a bowl, usually named after the base ingredient at the bottom or after a different dish that it simulates. “This restaurant offers a number of different bowls.”
- noun The non-mesh outer-container part of a salad spinner.
- noun The round container surface of a mortar (hollow vessel used to pound, crush, rub, grind or mix ingredients with a pestle).
- noun A water bowl, such as for a pet.
- noun (Buddhism) One of the seven bowls of water used as ceremonial offerings in Buddhist practice.
- noun (Christianity) One of the seven bowls representing plagues described in Revelations in Christian theology.
- noun The round hollow part of anything; anything shaped like a bowl. “Dig out a bowl in the ground.”
- noun (bowls) The ball rolled by players in the game of lawn bowls.
- noun (sports) The action of bowling a ball.
- verb (transitive) To roll or throw (a ball) in the correct manner in cricket and similar games and sports.
- verb (intransitive) To throw the ball (in cricket and similar games and sports).
- verb (intransitive) To play bowling or a similar game.
- verb To roll or carry smoothly on, or as on, wheels. “We were bowled rapidly along the road.”
- verb To pelt or strike with anything rolled.
Synonyms
bowlful crater hollow bowl cut pudding bowl roll throw bung cast chuck chunk cook dash dump feck fling jerk heave hield hoy trough stadium arena sports stadium bowling ball pipe bowl
Etymology
From Middle English bolle, from Old English bolla, bolle (“bowl, cup, pot, beaker, measure”), from Proto-West Germanic *bollā, from Proto-Germanic *bullǭ (“ball, round vessel, bowl”).
Cognate with North Frisian bol (“bun, bread roll”), Middle Low German bolle, bole (“round object”), Dutch bol (“ball, sphere, scoop, dot”), German Bolle (“bulb”), Danish bolle (“bowl, bread roll”), Icelandic bolli (“cup”). Doublet of boule and pulla.
From Middle English bowle, boule, from Old French boule (“ball”), from Latin bulla (“bubble, stud, round object”). Doublet of poll.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A concave vessel of various forms (often approximately hemisherical), to hold liquids, etc. Brought them food in bowls of basswood. Longfellow.
- noun Specifically, a drinking vessel for wine or other spirituous liquors; hence, convival drinking.
- noun A ball of wood or other material used for rolling on a level surface in play; a ball of hard wood having one side heavier than the other, so as to give it a bias when rolled.
- noun pl.
Etymology [OE. bolle, AS. bolla; akin to Icel. bolli, Dan. bolle, G. bolle, and perh. to E. boil a tumor. Cf. Boll.]
Etymology [F. boule, fr. L. bulla bubble, stud. Cf. Bull an edict, Bill a writing.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “bowl”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details