bowel

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French bouel, from Old French boïel, from Latin botellus, diminutive of botulus (“sausage”). Doublet of boyau.

Pronunciation

• enPR: bou'əl, boul, IPA^(key): /ˈbaʊ.əl/, /baʊl/

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• Rhymes: -aʊəl, -aʊl

Noun

bowel (plural bowels)

1. (chiefly medicine) A part or division of the intestines, usually the large intestine.
2. (in the plural) The entrails or intestines; the internal organs of the stomach.
   • 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt  (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Acts:

     And when he was hanged, brast asondre in the myddes, and all his bowels gusshed out.

   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. The First Part , 2nd edition, part 1, London: Richard Iones, , published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene iii:

     Leaue words & let them feele your lances pointes,
     UUhich glided through the bowels of the Greekes.

3. (in the plural, figuratively) The (deep) interior of something.

   The treasures were stored in the bowels of the ship.

   • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , line 129:

     His soldiers […] cried out amain, / And rushed into the bowels of the battle.

4. (in the plural, archaic) The seat of pity or the gentler emotions; pity or mercy.
   • c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], line 48:

     Thou thing of no bowels, thou!

   • 1655, Thomas Fuller, The History of Waltham Abbey:

     Bloody Bonner, that corpulent tyrant, full (as one said) of guts, and empty of bowels.

5. (obsolete, in the plural) offspring
   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , line 29:

     Friend hast thou none, / For thine own bowels, which do call thee sire,

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

bowel (third-person singular simple present bowels, present participle bowelling or (US) boweling, simple past and past participle bowelled or (US) boweled)

1. (now rare) To disembowel.
   • 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, Kupperman, published 1988, page 149:

     Their bodies are first bowelled, then dried upon hurdles till they be very dry [...].

See also

• large bowel
• small bowel
• small intestine
• colon
• laxative
• tharm

Anagrams

• Below, Blowe, Lebow, below, blowe, bowle, elbow