See Also: Bowel(medicine)
bowel(dictionary)
Bowel(health)
bowel(dictionary)
Bowel sounds(health)
Bowel prep(health)
Bowel movement(health)
intramural bowel gas(medicine)
gay bowel syndrome(medicine)
bowel sounds(medicine)

bowel (iou)



bowel noun & verb. ME.

A. noun.
1. The part of the alimentary canal below the stomach; the intestine; the gut. Exc. in medical use now usu. in pl., the intestines, the entrails. ME.
b. Any internal organ of the body. LME-L18.
2. In pl. The interior of the body. Chiefly fig., (the innermost source of) pity or sympathetic feeling. arch. LME.
bowels of compassion, bowels of mercy, etc.
Carlyle Had idle readers any bowels for him.
3. In pl. The innermost parts of anything. E16.
bowels of the earth the depths of the earth.
S. Rushdie He lived somewhere in the insanitary bowels of the old wooden-house quarter.
4. In pl. Offspring. E16-L17.
Shakespeare Measure for Measure Thine own bowels which do call thee sire.
B. verb trans. Infl. -ll-, *-l-. Disembowel. arch. ME.
bowelled adjective (a) having bowels or recesses; (b) disembowelled: L16.
bowelless [-l-l-] adjective (arch.) without mercy, pitiless M17.