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jowl

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jowl¹

  • /d͡ʒaʊl/
  • /d͡ʒəʊl/

Sounds like Joel (one pronunciation), joule (one pronunciation) · Rhymes with -aʊl, -əʊl

Where it comes from

From Middle English jawle, chawl, chavel (“jaw, jawbone”), from Old English ċeafl (“jaw, cheek”), from Proto-West Germanic *kafl (“jaw, cheek”). The modern form (for expected chavel, chawl; still found dialectally) is influenced by jaw, which it is a partial doublet of.

noun jowls · jole · joll

  1. The jaw, jawbone; especially one of the lateral parts of the mandible. I had lain, therefore, all that time, cheek by jowl with Blackbeard himself, with only a thin shell of tinder wood to keep him from me, and now had thrust my hand into his coffin and plucked away his beard.

verb jowls · jowling · jowled · jole · joll

  1. obsolete, transitive To throw, dash, or knock. That ſkull had a tongue in it, and could ſing once, how the knave iowles it to the ground, as if twere Caines iawbone, that did the firſt murder, this might be the pate of a pollitician, which this aſſe now ore-reaches; one that would circumuent God, might it not?

jowl²

  • /d͡ʒaʊl/
  • /d͡ʒəʊl/

Sounds like Joel (one pronunciation), joule (one pronunciation) · Rhymes with -aʊl, -əʊl

Where it comes from

From Middle English cholle (“wattle, jowl”), from Old English ċeole (“throat”), from Proto-West Germanic *kelā, from Proto-Germanic *kelǭ (“gullet”) (compare Scots choll, West Frisian kiel, Dutch keel, German Kehle), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷelu- (“to swallow”) (compare Old Irish in·gilid (“to graze”), Irish goile (“stomach”), Latin gula (“throat”), gluttiō (“to swallow”), Russian глота́ть (glotátʹ, “to swallow, gulp”), Ancient Greek δέλεαρ (délear, “lure”), Armenian կլանել (klanel, “to swallow”), Persian گلو (galu), Hindi गला (galā, “neck, throat”)).

noun jowls · chowl · joul · jole · joll

  1. A fold of fatty flesh under the chin, around the cheeks, or lower jaw (as a dewlap, wattle, crop, or double chin).
  2. The cheek; especially the cheek meat of a hog.
  3. A cut of fish including the head and adjacent parts

jowl³

  • /d͡ʒaʊl/
  • /d͡ʒəʊl/

Sounds like Joel (one pronunciation), joule (one pronunciation) · Rhymes with -aʊl, -əʊl

Where it comes from

From Middle English jollen, chollen (“to knock, strike, batter; stagger”). Related to jow (“to knock, bump, ring”).

verb jowls · jowling · jowled · geoll · joule

  1. dialectal, transitive To knock, bump, strike against; hit, strike; peck at.
  2. dialectal, transitive To jolt or shake roughly; shake up, mix together.
  3. dialectal, transitive, of the bowels To rumble.
  4. dialectal, transitive, of a bell To toll, knell.

noun jowls · geoll · joule · joul · jole

  1. dialectal A blow, bump, knock.
  2. dialectal The tolling of a bell; knell.

Translations

Every language

noun jaw

Françaisjoue, mâchoire, bajoue
DeutschWange, Backe
Italianoguancia, mascella
Русскийче́люсть čéljustʹ

noun fold of flesh

Españolpapada
Françaisbajoue, babine

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Cite this
MLA

"jowl." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/jowl. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

jowl. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/jowl

Chicago

"jowl." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/jowl.

BibTeX
@misc{jowl_2026,
  title = {jowl},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/jowl},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}