bowel
/ˈbaʊ.əl/
bowel noun: a part or division of the intestines, usually the large intestine.
Noun
bowel (plural bowels)
- A part or division of the intestines, usually the large intestine.
- The entrails or intestines; the internal organs of the stomach.
- And when he was hanged, brast asondre in the myddes, and all his bowels gusshed out.1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Acts
- Leaue words & let them feele your lances pointes,
UUhich glided through the bowels of the Greekes.c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
- The (deep) interior of something.
- The treasures were stored in the bowels of the ship.
- His soldiers […] cried out amain, / And rushed into the bowels of the battle.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[ward]...
- The seat of pity or the gentler emotions; pity or mercy.
- Thou thing of no bowels, thou!c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
- Bloody Bonner, that corpulent tyrant, full (as one said) of guts, and empty of bowels.1655, Thomas Fuller, The History of Waltham Abbey
- offspring
- Friend hast thou none, / For thine own bowels, which do call thee sire,c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
Verb
bowel (third-person singular simple present bowels, present participle (US) boweling or (UK) bowelling, simple past and past participle (US) boweled or (UK) bowelled)
- To disembowel.
- Their bodies are first bowelled, then dried upon hurdles till they be very dry [...].1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, Kupperman, published 1988, page 149
bowel meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
bowel in Hindi
- large intestine
- बृहदान्त्र bŕhdāntra
bowel in Tamil
- குடல் பகுதி, குடல்
bowel in Urdu
- large intestine
- بَڑی آنْت baṛī ānt
bowel in Bengali
- large intestine
- বৃহদান্ত্র brihodantro
More languagesFewer languages
- bowel in Telugu
- పేగులు pēgulu
- bowel in Malayalam
- കുടൽ, ശരീരാന്തർഭാഗം
- bowel in Arabic
- أَمْعَاء غَلِيظَة ʔamʕāʔ ḡalīẓa
- bowel in Malay
- usus besar
- bowel in Thai
- ลำไส้ใหญ่ lam-sâi-yài
- bowel in Vietnamese
- ruột già, đại tràng
- bowel in Myanmar
- အူမကြီး uma.kri:
Examples of bowel in a sentence
- The patient had a small bowel obstruction and there was no appearance until after the obstruction resolved.
- Treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases has improved as human understanding of molecular biology has advanced.
- About thirty minutes after he took the deflatulent, his bowels grew noticeably more quiescent.
Forms of bowel
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | bowels |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | bowels |
| present participle US | boweling |
| present participle UK | bowelling |
| past participle US | boweled |
| past US | boweled |
| past participle UK | bowelled |
| past UK | bowelled |
Origin of bowel
Borrowed from Middle French bouel, from Old French boïel, from Latin botellus, diminutive of botulus (“sausage”). Doublet of boyau.
Words formed from bowel
- book bowel
- book bowel tendency
- bowel cancer
- bowelless
- bowellism
- bowel movement
- bowel obstruction
- bowel transit time
- disbowel
- disembowel
- embowel
- gay bowel syndrome
- get one's bowels in an uproar
- inflammatory bowel disease
- irritable bowel syndrome
- large bowel
- nonbowel
- open one's bowels
- short bowel syndrome
- small bowel
- unbowel
Phrases with bowel
Words that rhyme with bowel
Questions about bowel
- What does bowel mean?
- Bowel means a part or division of the intestines, usually the large intestine.
- What is bowel in Hindi?
- Bowel in Hindi is बृहदान्त्र (bŕhdāntra). See Bowel meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is bowel?
- Bowel can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce bowel?
- Bowel is pronounced /ˈbaʊ.əl/.
- What is the plural of bowel?
- The plural of bowel is bowels.
Words near bowel in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: bowel (page history and authors); bowel (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bowel (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-bowel.wav.
Cite this entry: “bowel.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bowel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.