bowl

plural bowls

1. A roughly hemispherical container used to hold, mix, prepare or present food, such as salad, fruit or soup, or other items.
   1. As much as is held by a bowl.

      You can’t have any more soup – you’ve had three bowls already.

      Synonyms: bowlful

   2. cookingA dish comprising a mix of different foods served in a bowl, usually named after the base ingredient at the bottom or after a different dish that it simulates.

      açai bowl, rice bowl, sushi bowl

      2 more examples

      This restaurant offers a number of different bowls.

      Fresh ingredients are more expensive than highly processed ones and the result is grain bowls galore for those who can spend $10 or more per meal, and fast food full of salt, fat and sugar for everyone else.

      2021 October 23, Jane Black, “The Amazon of Quinoa Bowls”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

   3. The non-mesh outer-container part of a salad spinner.
   4. The round container surface of a mortar (hollow vessel used to pound, crush, rub, grind or mix ingredients with a pestle).
   5. A water bowl, such as for a pet.
   6. BuddhismOne of the seven bowls of water used as ceremonial offerings in Buddhist practice.
   7. ChristianityOne of the seven bowls representing plagues described in Revelations in Christian theology.
2. The round hollow part of anything; anything shaped like a bowl.

   Dig out a bowl in the ground.

   1. The part of a spoon that holds content, as opposed to the handle.
   2. The part of a cup that holds a liquid, as opposed to the handle.
   3. The surface of a sink that receives liquid and has a drain.
   4. The spinning core of a centrifugal separator.
   5. Part of a pipe, bong, or other smoking implement that holds the material to be burned.

      195. Old German Pipe-Bowl ; carved wood ; design in front of bowl – the letters P K K surrounded by a wreath ; lid wanting. Switzerland.

      1882, Edwin Atlee Barber, Catalogue of the Collection of Tobacco Pipes Deposited by Edwin A. Barber, page 11

   6. The quantity of burnable content to be consumed in a pipe or bong.

      Let's smoke a bowl!

      1 more example

      Purple smoke is no joke. Especially when it is real purple. The smell, taste, and high is easily one of the best in the world. One bowl of some purple Kush, and I'm done for a couple of hours.

      2010, Mark Arax, West of the West, page 221

   7. A round vessel used in various occult, spiritual or divinatory practices.
   8. mediaA rounded portion of a glyph that encloses empty space, as in the letters d and o.
   9. geographyA round crater (or similar) in the ground; a region shaped like a bowl.

      Synonyms: crater, hollow

   10. entertainmentAn elliptical-shaped stadium or amphitheater resembling a bowl.
   11. broadlyAmerican footballA postseason football competition, a bowl game (i.e. Rose Bowl, Super Bowl).
   12. A haircut in which straight hair is cut at an even height around the edges, forming an overturned-bowl shape.

       Synonyms: bowl cut, pudding bowl

   13. entertainmentA singing bowl.
   14. A begging bowl

plural bowls

1. bowlsThe ball rolled by players in the game of lawn bowls.
2. hobbiesThe action of bowling a ball.

present singular third person bowls · participle present bowling · participle past bowled · past bowled

1. transitiveTo roll or throw (a ball) in the correct manner in cricket and similar games and sports.

   Break all the spokes and fellies from her wheel, / And bowl the round nave down the hill of heaven.

   c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]

   Synonyms: roll, throw, bung, cast, chuck, chunk, cook, dash

2. intransitiveTo throw the ball (in cricket and similar games and sports).
3. intransitiveTo play bowling or a similar game.
4. To roll or carry smoothly on, or as on, wheels.

   We were bowled rapidly along the road.

   1 more example

   On busy days, they also may be seen bowling along the Brighton main line, north of Keymer Junction, with a relief Newhaven boat express, […].

   1950 November, R. A. H. Weight, “A Railway Recorder in Southern England”, in Railway Magazine, page 772

5. To pelt or strike with anything rolled.

   Alas, I had rather be set quick i' the earth, / And bowled to death with turnips.

   c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv]