bowssen

B3O1W4S1S1E1N1
/ˈbaʊsən/

verb

To dunk or immerse (into water, for remedial purposes).

OriginCornish beudhi ← Breton beuziñ →
Scrabble 12
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Meanings

verbbowssen (third-person singular simple present bowssens, present participle bowssening, simple past and past participle bowssened)

present singular third person bowssens · participle present bowssening · participle past bowssened · past bowssened

  1. CornwallobsoleteTo dunk or immerse (into water, for remedial purposes).

    There were many bowssening places, for curing of mad men.

    1609, Richard Carew, “The Second Booke”, in The Survey of Cornwall, London: […] S[imon] S[tafford] for Iohn Iaggard, […], →OCLC, folio 123, recto

Origin

  1. Bretonbeuziñ“to drown”
  2. Cornishbeudhi
  3. Englishbowssen

Ultimately borrowed from Cornish beudhi or Breton beuziñ (“to drown”).

More words from Cornish, Breton

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

Bowness
Cite this entry
APA

bowssen. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bowssen

MLA

“bowssen.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bowssen. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “bowssen,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bowssen.

Source: bowssen on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.