BOWLING

- 8 dictionary results

bowl⋅ing

[boh-ling]

–noun

any of several games in which players standing at one end of an alley or green roll balls at standing objects or toward a mark at the other end, esp. a game in which a heavy ball is rolled from one end of a wooden alley at wooden pins set up at the opposite end. Compare boccie, candlepin (def. 2), duckpin (def. 2), lawn bowling, ninepin (def. 2), tenpin (def. 2).

2.	the game of bowls.

3.	an act or instance of playing or participating in any such game: Bowling is a pleasant way to exercise.

Origin:
1525–35; bowl ² + -ing ¹

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bowl

1 [bohl]

–noun

1.	a rather deep, round dish or basin, used chiefly for holding liquids, food, etc.

2.	the contents of a bowl: a bowl of tomato soup.

3.	a rounded, cuplike, hollow part: the bowl of a pipe.

4.	a large drinking cup.

5.	festive drinking; conviviality.

6.	any bowl-shaped depression or formation.

7.	an edifice with tiers of seats forming sides like those of a bowl, having the arena at the bottom; stadium.

8.	Also called bowl game. a football game played after the regular season by teams selected by the sponsors of the game, usually as representing the best from a region of the country: the Rose Bowl.

9.	Typography. a curved or semicircular line of a character, as of a, d, b, etc.

–verb (used with object)

10.	to give (a floor) a gentle inclination on all sides toward some area, as a stage or platform.

Origin:
bef. 950; ME bolle, OE bolla; c. ON bolli. See boll

Related forms:

bowllike, adjective

bowl

2 [bohl]

–noun

1.	one of the balls, having little or no bias, used in playing ninepins or tenpins.

2.	one of the biased or weighted balls used in lawn bowling.

3.	bowls, (used with a singular verb) lawn bowling.

4.	a delivery of the ball in bowling or lawn bowling.

5.	(formerly) a rotating cylindrical part in a machine, as one to reduce friction.

–verb (used without object)

6.	to play at bowling or bowls; participate in or have a game or games of bowling.

7.	to roll a bowl or ball.

8.	to move along smoothly and rapidly.

9.	Cricket. to deliver the ball to be played by the batsman.

–verb (used with object)

10.	to roll or trundle, as a ball or hoop.

11.	to attain by bowling: He bowls a good game. She usually bowls a 120 game, but today she bowled 180.

12.	to knock or strike, as by the ball in bowling (usually fol. by over or down).

13.	to carry or convey, as in a wheeled vehicle.

14.	Cricket. to eliminate (a batsman) by bowling (usually fol. by out): He was bowled for a duck. He was bowled out for a duck.

—Verb phrase

15.	bowl over, to surprise greatly: We were bowled over by the news.

Origin:
1375–1425; late ME bowle, var. of boule < MF < L bulla bubble, knob; cf. boil ¹ , bola

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source

Link To BOWLING

bowl² (bōl)

A large wooden ball weighted or slightly flattened so as to roll with a bias.
A roll or throw of this ball, as in bowling.
bowls (used with a sing. verb) See lawn bowling.
A revolving cylinder or drum in a machine.

v. bowled, bowl·ing, bowls

v. intr.

1. To participate in a game of bowling.
2. To throw or roll a ball in bowling.
3. To hurl a cricket ball from one end of the pitch toward the batsman at the other, keeping the arm straight throughout the delivery.
To move quickly and smoothly, especially by rolling: The children bowled along on their bicycles.

v. tr.

To throw or roll (a ball).
1. To achieve (a specified score) by bowling.
2. To perform (a specified amount, as a string or game) in bowling.
To move quickly and smoothly by or as if by rolling: bowled a tire from the garage.
To meet or strike with or as if with the force of a rapidly rolling object.

Phrasal Verb(s):
bowl outTo retire (a batsman in cricket) with a bowled ball that knocks the bails off the wicket.
bowl over

To take by surprise.
To make a powerful impression on; overwhelm.

[Middle English boule, from Old French, from Latin bulla, round object.]

bowl·ing (bō'lĭng)

1. A game played by rolling a ball down a wooden alley in order to knock down a triangular group of ten pins. Also called tenpins.
2. A similar game, such as duckpins or ninepins.
Lawn bowling.
The playing of one of these games.

Slang Dictionary

bowl

n.
a pipe or other device for smoking cannabis. (Drugs.) : There's somebody's bowl out in the hall. Go get it before the neighbors call the fuzz.

Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source

Word Origin & History

bowl

O.E. bolla "pot, cup, bowl," from P.Gmc. *bul- "a round vessel" (cf. O.N. bolle, O.H.G. bolla), from PIE *bhel- "to inflate, swell" (see bole).

bowling

1535, "playing at bowls" (1440, implied in v. bowlyn), from gerund of bowl "wooden ball" (1413), from M.Fr. boule "ball," ult. from L. bulla "bubble, knob, round thing." Bowling alley is from 1555.

"Noon apprentice ... [shall] play ... at the Tenys, Closshe, Dise, Cardes, Bowles nor any other unlawfull game." [Act 11, Henry VII, 1495]

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