Bow"el (?), n. [OE. bouel, bouele, OF. boel, boele, F. boyau, fr. L. botellus a small sausage, in LL. also intestine, dim. of L. botulus sausage.]

1.

One of the intestines of an animal; an entrail, especially of man; a gut; -- generally used in the plural.

He burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out. Acts i. 18.

2. pl.

Hence, figuratively: The interior part of anything; as, the bowels of the earth.

His soldiers . . . cried out amain, And rushed into the bowels of the battle. Shak.

3. pl.

The seat of pity or kindness. Hence: Tenderness; compassion.

"Thou thing of no bowels."

Shak.

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

4. pl.

Offspring.

[Obs.]

Shak.

 

© Webster 1913.


Bow"el, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Boweled or Bowelled (#); p. pr.& vb. n. Boweling or Bowelling.]

To take out the bowels of; to eviscerate; to disembowel.

 

© Webster 1913.

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