bowl1
/bəʊl
/noun
1A round, deep dish or basin used for food or liquid: a mixing bowl a sugar bowl...
- Whatever happened to the classic kitchen table method using a salt and pepper pot, a sugar bowl and a vinegar bottle?
- Pour liquid into a large bowl and mix in tomato juice, bell pepper, zucchini, onion, cayenne pepper and salt.
- Put the sugar into the bowl of the food mixer, separate the eggs and add the yolks to the sugar.
Synonyms
dish, basin, pan, pot, crock, crucible, mortar;
container, vessel, receptacle, repository;
pudding bowl, soup bowl, fruit bowl, punchbowl, mixing bowl, sugar bowl, finger bowl, rose bowl;
in ancient Greece crater
historical jorum, mazer, porringer, reservatory
1.1The contents of a bowl: they ate huge bowls of steaming spaghetti...
- However, until then you can content yourself with giant bowls of hot noodles.
- Those of us who survive mainly on bowls of cereal don't know whom to thank for last month's 29-cent drop in the local price of a gallon of milk.
- Not only were we giving out warm blankets to the residents, we were also providing over 1,000 bowls of hot pho ga (chicken noodle soup).
1.2 [usually in names] A decorative round dish awarded as a prize in a competition: the McGeorge Rose Bowl...
- Andrew said he was ‘totally surprised’ at his win and the award, a beech bowl carved by youngsters involved in the trust.
- Quiz bowl competitions can be extremely tense affairs, with down to the line finishes and shattered dreams.
- Last week, Fukuda took home another award - an engraved silver bowl from Tiffany.
1.3A rounded, concave part of an object: a toilet bowl the bowl of a spoon...
- They unscrewed a Mason jar inside a toilet bowl to get that hollow, massive echo.
- She was sitting on the closed lid of the toilet bowl, wounds far from being cleaned, clothes sweat-drenched and dirty.
- Sometimes I'd just like to dunk my face in the toilet bowl, slam the lid on it; and commit sewercide!
1.4 Geography A natural basin.Her wings had long since begun to ache when she finally crossed the circle of mountains into the natural bowl beyond....
- It was a mile-long track, kidney shaped, roughly on the alignment of the present road circuit in a natural bowl of giving spectators wonderful viewing.
- Where the road was, the house seemed to be at the bottom of a shallow bowl of weeds and terrain.
Synonyms
hollow, valley, dip, depression, indentation, well, trough, crater, cavity, concavity, sinkhole, hole, pit, excavation;
dust bowl;
British punchbowl
2 [in names] chiefly US A stadium for sporting or musical events: the Hollywood Bowl...
- But the stadium is a bowl with two tiers all the way round and it's kind of on top of you.
- Cleveland has a fresh face and while Pittsburgh is in the process of ditching the Three Rivers' stadium, it is not to build a space-age out-of-town bowl or dome.
- The defence which resisted Holland in the orange bowl of the arena for two hours last week was breached three times at home by Denmark during the qualifying campaign.
Synonyms
stadium, arena, amphitheatre, coliseum, colosseum;
enclosure, ground;
in ancient Rome circus, hippodrome
informal park
rare cirque
2.1An American football game played after the regular season between leading teams: Pro Bowl [as modifier]: their last four bowl games...
- There's still a chance for the Big Ten to place nine teams in bowl games this season.
- Some schools will actually have lay-offs of between five and six weeks between the regular season and their bowl game!
- You have your teams in the bowl games that are strong; anyone one can beat anybody on that level.
Derivatives
bowlful
/ noun (plural bowlfuls) ...- At lunchtime at St Peter's Primary School in East Bridgeford, Nottinghamshire, the children pile chopped tomatoes, cucumber and lettuce on their plates from the huge bowlfuls laid out every lunchtime.
- The light-brown bean and garlic dip tasted better than it looked… and we were soon asking for some more chips to finish off the bowlfuls.
- The other is a ruthless, self-serving dealmaker, a fat cat determined to have bowlfuls of cream.
Origin
Old English bolle, bolla, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch bol 'round object', also to boll.
bulletin from mid 17th century:
The word bulletin derives from Italian bulletta meaning ‘official warrant or certificate’—something like a passport today. The root is the Italian and medieval Latin word bulla ‘seal, sealed document’, the source of bill meaning ‘written statement of charges’ and of bull meaning ‘papal edict’. The original Latin meaning of bulla was ‘bubble’, and this is the basis of bowl (Old English) in the sense ‘ball’ and ultimately ‘basin’ and of budge (late 16th century) which comes via French bouger ‘to stir’, from Latin bullire ‘boil, bubble’, bullet (early 16th century) originally a small ball, bullion (Middle English) from the idea of bubbling metal, and ebullient (late 16th century) ‘bubbling’.
Rhymes
bowl2
/bəʊl/noun
1A wooden or hard rubber ball, slightly asymmetrical so that it runs on a curved course, used in the game of bowls.You will find there is less catchment area for the wind to affect the bowl on its course....
- He came back with a bruise on his cheek where the troll had hit him with a wooden bowl, and grinning like a mad man.
- Arun groaned, a sound that redoubled in frustration as he saw the wooden bowl resting on the ground.
1.1A large ball with indentations for gripping, used in tenpin bowling.William shrugged, and gripped the bowl with his left hand, picking at something brown with the other....
- Correction may involve using a smaller bowl or changing the grip from fingertip to claw.
- Those lovable Americans are encouraged to ‘get on down’ to their local bowling place and throw a bowl in support of those guys with balls.
1.2A wooden ball or disc used in playing skittles.On one occasion I watched the ball skittle all the bowls much to the chagrin of the bowlers....
- Staying down until the jack or bowl has travelled 4 to 5 metres towards your objective position is strongly recommended.
2A spell or turn of bowling in cricket.He had his first bowl in senior cricket, sending down a tidy over....
- It was the most draining day I had ever experienced in Test cricket and I hadn't even had a bowl.
- If the opposition bowls well sometimes, we might not score at that rate, but if you look in the recent past the margin of error for the opposition bowlers is quite small, so they've got to be right on top of their game.
verb
1 [with object and adverbial of direction] Roll (a ball or other round object) along the ground: she snatched her hat off and bowled it ahead of her...
- At dawn alert next day Suwanti chained the dogs away from a round jungle-green enigma then bowled the baby into the hedge to its kind.
- Are they enjoying their comfy suburb, maybe walking the dog through their local park, burning a few snags, or just bowling a few balls to their kids?
- This from a little boy with home-made stumps bowling tennis balls.
2 [with object] Cricket (Of a bowler) propel (the ball) with a straight arm towards the batsman, typically in such a way that the ball bounces once: Lillee bowled another bouncer [no object]: Sobers bowled to Willis...
- The floodlit one-day international between West Indies and New Zealand A at Bristol was abandoned without a ball being bowled because of persistent heavy rain.
- It was re-arranged to take place at the HSBC Bank Sports Club ground at Beckenham last month - but was again rained off, without a ball being bowled.
- Challengers Windermere and Warton were due to come head-to-head for the first time this summer but not a ball was bowled at Windermere because of the conditions.
Synonyms
pitch, throw, propel, hurl, toss, lob, loft, fling, launch, let fly, shy, cast, project, send, deliver;
spin, roll
informal chuck, sling, bung, heave, buzz, whang
North American informal peg
Australian informal hoy
New Zealand informal bish
2.1 (also bowl someone out) Dismiss (a batsman) by knocking down the wicket with the ball which one has bowled: Stewart was bowled for 33...
- On the other side of it, what if an illegal-action bowler bowls a batsman out consistently?
- He is bowled for a duck in his final Test innings
- The home side made a bright start with 64 for the first wicket where Rob Taylor was bowled for 41.
2.2 (bowl a side out) Get an entire team out: they bowled Lancashire out for 143...
- Because wickets are nowhere near as important as runs, one of the two pillars upon which cricket is built (the ability to bowl a side out) is temporarily removed for the one-day game, then reinstalled like a drop-in pitch for Test matches.
- We do not believe we can bowl a side out during a Test.
- The idea was to score quickly, at as close to four an over as possible, so as to put the game out of the reach of the opposition and allow yourself time enough to bowl a side out twice.
3 [no object, with adverbial of direction] British Move rapidly and smoothly in a specified direction: they bowled along the country roads...
- Graham and I took a wing each, and bowling along down the slope we got up enough speed and launched the lumbering thing into the void.
- Do you realise, my darling inflated panther, that now you can go bowling in any direction you like?
- When I first see her she's bowling along a Soho street, looking late and anxious, in a pair of hippy maroon cords and a flappy purple jumper.
Synonyms
hurtle, speed, career, shoot, streak, sweep, hare, fly, wing;
drive, motor, move, travel, go, proceed
informal belt, pelt, tear, scoot, tool
British informal bomb, bucket, shift, go like the clappers
North American informal clip, boogie, hightail, barrel
archaic post, hie
Phrasal verbs
bowl someone over
Origin
Late Middle English (in the general sense 'ball'): from Old French boule, from Latin bulla 'bubble'.