Bow"el (?), n. [OE. bouel, bouele, OF. boel, boele, F. boyau, fr. L. botellus a small sausage, in LL. also intestine, dim. of L. botulus sausage.]
1.
One of the intestines of an animal; an entrail, especially of man; a gut; -- generally used in the plural.
He burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out.
Acts i. 18.
2. pl.
Hence, figuratively: The interior part of anything; as, the bowels of the earth.
His soldiers . . . cried out amain,
And rushed into the bowels of the battle.
Shak.
3. pl.
The seat of pity or kindness. Hence: Tenderness; compassion.
"Thou thing of no
bowels."
Shak.
Bloody Bonner, that corpulent tyrant, full (as one said) of guts, and empty of bowels.
Fuller.
4. pl.
Offspring.
[Obs.]
Shak.
© Webster 1913.
Bow"el, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Boweled or Bowelled (#); p. pr.& vb. n. Boweling or Bowelling.]
To take out the bowels of; to eviscerate; to disembowel.
© Webster 1913.