cowl
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cowl¹
- /kaʊl/ US, UK
- /kəʉl/
Sounds like cawl · Rhymes with -aʊl, -aʊəl
Where it comes from
From Middle English coule, from Old English cūle, from earlier cugele (“hood, cowl”), from Ecclesiastical Latin cuculla (“monk's cowl”), from Latin cucullus (“hood”), of uncertain origin. Doublet of cagoule.
noun cowls
- A monk's hood that can be pulled forward to cover the face; a robe with such a hood attached to it. c. 1536, William Tyndale, An Exposycyon vpon the v. vi. vii. Chapters of Mathewe, An Exposycyon of the syxte Capiter, And therfore al our monkes whose professyon was neuer to eate fleshe, set vp the Pope and toke dispensacyons bothe for that faste and also for theyr strayte rules, and made theyr str
- A mask that covers the majority of the head.
- A thin protective covering over all or part of an engine; also cowling. […] fire was spurting up from the torn engine cowl and glowing in the cockpit.
- A usually hood-shaped covering used to increase the draft of a chimney and prevent backflow. In the extreme clearness of the atmosphere the line of every roof, the cowl of every chimney was perceptible […]
- A ship's ventilator with a bell-shaped top which can be swivelled to catch the wind and force it below. He flung himself at the port ventilator as though he meant to tear it out bodily and toss it overboard. All he did was to move the cowl round a few inches, with an enormous expenditure of force, and seemed spent in the effort.
- A vertical projection of a ship's funnel that directs the smoke away from the bridge.
- A monk.
verb cowls · cowling · cowled
- To cover with, or as if with, a cowl (hood). Why cowl thy face beneath the Mourner’s hood,
- To wrap or form (something made of fabric) like a cowl. When he came downstairs from the bar with the whiskies, she had found a sweater for herself and had cowled a thick raincoat over Sligo.
- To make a monk of (a person).
- To scrape together COWL, scrape together. "Cowlin t'cinders up."
cowl²
- /kaʊl/ US, UK
- /kəʉl/
Sounds like cawl · Rhymes with -aʊl, -aʊəl
Where it comes from
From Middle English coul, covel, from Old French cuvel (“vat”), diminutive of cuve, from Latin cūpa (“tub, cask, tun, vat”).
noun cowls
- A vessel carried on a pole, a soe.
cowl³
- /kaʊl/ US, UK
- /kəʉl/
Sounds like cawl · Rhymes with -aʊl, -aʊəl
Where it comes from
See caul, probably altered due to semantic association (“something covering the head”).
noun cowls
- A caul (the amnion which encloses the foetus before birth, especially that part of it which sometimes shrouds a baby’s head at birth). According to one of his accounts—and his accounts varied with his audience—he was the seventh son of a seventh son, and born with a cowl on his face […]
cowl⁴
- /kaʊl/ US, UK
- /kəʉl/
Sounds like cawl · Rhymes with -aʊl, -aʊəl
Where it comes from
Borrowed from Ulster Scots coul, from Middle English cold.
adjective more cowl · most cowl
- cold An' bitther cowl; an' min' ye I had play,
