bowel

plural bowels

1. medicineA part or division of the intestines, usually the large intestine.
2. 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.

   1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Acts

   1 more example

   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; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene iii

3. figurativelyin pluralThe (deep) interior of something.

   The treasures were stored in the bowels of the ship.

   1 more example

   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] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], line 129

4. archaicin pluralThe 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 Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], line 48

   1 more example

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

   1655, Thomas Fuller, The History of Waltham Abbey

5. in pluralobsoleteoffspring

   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] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i], line 29

present singular third person bowels · US participle present boweling · UK participle present bowelling · US participle past boweled · US past boweled · UK participle past bowelled · UK past bowelled

1. archaicTo 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