/ˈbaʊ.əl/, /baʊl/
OriginBorrowed from Middle French bouel, from Old French boïel, from Latin botellus, diminutive of botulus (“sausage”). Doublet of boyau.
- A part or division of the intestines, usually the large intestine.
- in-pluralThe 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.”
“Leaue words & let them feele your lances pointes,
UUhich glided through the bowels of the Greekes.”
- figuratively, in-pluralThe (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.”
- archaic, in-pluralThe seat of pity or the gentler emotions; pity or mercy.
“Thou thing of no bowels, thou!”
“Bloody Bonner, that corpulent tyrant, full (as one said) of guts, and empty of bowels.”
- in-plural, obsoleteoffspring
“Friend hast thou none, / For thine own bowels, which do call thee sire,”
- archaicTo disembowel.
“Their bodies are first bowelled, then dried upon hurdles till they be very dry [...].”
Formsbowels(plural) · bowels(present, singular, third-person) · boweling(US, participle, present) · bowelling(UK, participle, present) · boweled(US, participle, past) · boweled(US, past) · bowelled(UK, participle, past) · bowelled(UK, past)
Source: Wiktionary