Meanings
nounthowel (plural thowels)
plural thowels · alternative thowl
- A rowlock.
[…] I would sit impatiently thinking with what an unusual amount of noise the oars worked in the thowels.
1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter XV, in Great Expectations […], volume III, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC, pages 247–248
Origin
See thole; other dialectal forms include thoal.
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
APA
thowel. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/thowel
MLA
“thowel.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/thowel. Accessed November 3, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “thowel,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/thowel.
Source: thowel on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.