bowl

Etymology 1

From Middle English bolle, from Old English bolla, bolle (“bowl, cup, pot, beaker, measure”), from Proto-West Germanic *bollā, from Proto-Germanic *bullǭ (“ball, round vessel, bowl”). Cognate with North Frisian bol (“bun, bread roll”), Middle Low German bolle, bole (“round object”), Dutch bol (“ball, sphere, scoop, dot”), German Bolle (“bulb”), Danish bolle (“bowl, bread roll”), Icelandic bolli (“cup”). Doublet of boule and pulla.

noun

1. A roughly hemispherical container used to hold, mix or present food, such as salad, fruit or soup, or other items.
2. As much as is held by a bowl.
   You can’t have any more soup – you’ve had three bowls already.
3. (cooking) A dish comprising a mix of different foods, not all of which need be cooked, served in a bowl.
   This restaurant offers a number of different bowls.
   poke bowl
   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. 2021-10-23, Jane Black, “The Amazon of Quinoa Bowls”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
4. A haircut in which straight hair is cut at an even height around the edges, forming a bowl shape.
5. The round hollow part of anything.
   1. The part of a spoon that holds content, as opposed to the handle.
   2. Part of a pipe, bong, or other smoking implement that holds the material to be burned.
      Let's smoke a bowl!
      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
      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
   3. (typography) A rounded portion of a glyph that encloses empty space, as in the letters d and o.
6. (geography) A round crater (or similar) in the ground.
7. (sports, theater) An elliptical-shaped stadium or amphitheater resembling a bowl.
8. (American football) A postseason football competition, a bowl game (i.e. Rose Bowl, Super Bowl)

Etymology 2

From Middle English bowle, boule, from Old French boule (“ball”), from Latin bulla (“bubble, stud, round object”). Doublet of poll.

noun

1. (bowls) The ball rolled by players in the game of lawn bowls.
2. (sports) The action of bowling a ball.

verb

1. (transitive) To roll or throw (a ball) in the correct manner in cricket and similar games and sports.
2. (intransitive) To throw the ball (in cricket and similar games and sports).
3. (intransitive) To play bowling or a similar game.
4. To roll or carry smoothly on, or as on, wheels.
   We were bowled rapidly along the road.
5. To pelt or strike with anything rolled.