bowel

IPA/ˈbaʊəl/
KK[bˈaʊəl]IPA/ˈbaʊəl/

bowel — noun

  • bowelsingular
  • bowelsplural

1. the long, soft tube inside your body, below the stomach, where food is broken do

1.nounB2
Definition

the long, soft tube inside your body, below the stomach, where food is broken down further and waste is gathered before leaving the body.

Example

Roya went to hospital after sharp pain in her lower bowel kept her awake all night.

anatomical location: lower / upper bowel

The surgeon removed a small tumour from Gabriel's bowel during a two-hour operation.

collocation: tumour / cancer of the bowel

Common collocations
  • small bowel
  • large bowel
  • bowel cancer
  • bowel disease
  • lower bowel
Synonyms
  • intestine

    more technical; doctors say 'small intestine' / 'large intestine' for specific parts

  • gut

    informal; covers the stomach and intestines together

Grammar Patterns

the + bowel(s)

in the bowel

Usage Note

Often appears in compounds describing parts or conditions of this organ: small bowel, large bowel, bowel cancer, bowel disease. Plural 'bowels' refers to the same organ as a whole, not to a quantity.

Common Mistakes

I have a pain in my bowels because I ate too much.
I have a stomach ache because I ate too much.
for everyday tummy pain, English speakers say 'stomach', not 'bowel'; 'bowel' is mostly medical.

2. in clinical talk between medical staff and patients, the act of releasing solid

2.nounC1
Definition

in clinical talk between medical staff and patients, the act of releasing solid waste from the body — heard mainly in fixed phrases such as 'open the bowels' or 'move the bowels'.

Example

The nurse asked Beatrix whether she had opened her bowels since the operation.

fixed phrase: open one's bowels

Patients on this medicine often cannot move their bowels for two or three days.

fixed phrase: move one's bowels

Common collocations
  • open the bowels
  • move the bowels
  • empty the bowels
Synonyms

Grammar Patterns

open one's bowels

move one's bowels

Usage Note

Only appears with a small set of verbs ('open', 'move', 'empty') and a possessive ('your', 'her', 'his'). Outside hospital and clinic talk, English speakers normally say 'go to the toilet' or 'have a bowel movement'.

Common Mistakes

I bowel every morning.
I open my bowels every morning.
'bowel' is not a verb; use 'open / move my bowels' or, more naturally, 'go to the toilet'.

3. the part of a place that lies furthest inside, away from the surface or entrance

3.nounC1
Definition

the part of a place that lies furthest inside, away from the surface or entrance — used in a literary way, for example about the inside of a ship, a building, or the earth.

Example

Lakan crawled down into the bowels of the old wooden ship to fix the engine.

fixed phrase: the bowels of + ship / building

Hot, dark water rushed up from the bowels of the earth and filled the cave.

literary: bowels of the earth

Common collocations
  • the bowels of the earth
  • the bowels of the ship
  • the bowels of the building
Synonyms
  • depths

    more common in everyday writing; 'the depths of the ocean'

  • interior

    neutral and technical; 'the interior of the building'

  • innards

    informal; suggests the inside parts of a machine or body

Antonyms
  • surface

    the outer layer, opposite of the deep inside

Grammar Patterns

the bowels of + noun

Usage Note

Almost always 'the bowels of [something large]' — a ship, a mountain, the earth, a big building. Singular 'bowel' is not used in this meaning. Common in adventure stories and news writing about disasters.

Common Mistakes

We walked into the bowel of the cave.
We walked into the bowels of the cave.
this meaning uses the plural form 'bowels'.

Word family

  • disembowel
    verbC2

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

All three refer to the long tube below the stomach where food is broken down further and waste is collected, but they live in different registers. 'Intestine' is the most technical and is the term doctors use for named parts — 'small intestine', 'large intestine' — when precision matters. 'Bowel' is also medical but tends to appear with everyday body talk in clinics ('bowel cancer', 'lower bowel', 'open your bowels'); patients in Britain and Ireland hear it constantly. 'Gut' is the most informal and the broadest: it covers the stomach AND the intestines and is common in journalism and health blogs, as in 'gut bacteria' or 'gut health'. So a doctor might say 'I'd like to scan your large intestine'; a nurse might ask 'when did you last open your bowels?'; and a magazine writer might title an article 'Look after your gut'.

bowel ↗intestine ↗gut ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

  • bowel cancer
  • bowel disease
  • bowel movement
  • bowel surgery
  • small bowel
  • large bowel

Phrases

  • open the bowels
  • move the bowels
  • the bowels of the earth

Prepositions

  • in the bowel
  • into the bowels of

Etymology

LatinOld FrenchMiddle EnglishEnglish

From Old French 'boel' (intestine), which came from Latin 'botellus' meaning 'small sausage' — a playful image of the gut as a long, soft tube. The figurative use for the deepest inside of something (a ship, the earth) has been in English since the late 1300s.