What does bowelled mean?
Bowelled is the British past tense and past participle of the verb 'bowel', meaning to remove the bowels or internal organs from a body. It is used almost exclusively in contexts involving hunting, butchery, and historical accounts of punishment or violence, where an animal carcass or human victim is emptied of its entrails — often so that meat can be preserved or as part of a gruesome execution. The word derives from 'bowel', which entered Middle English from Old French 'bouel' and ultimately from Latin 'botellus', a diminutive meaning 'small sausage', reflecting the appearance of the intestines. Because the spelling resembles that of 'bowl', readers sometimes confuse 'bowelled' with 'bowled', the cricketing term, though the meanings are entirely unrelated. In contemporary usage, 'gutted' and 'disembowelled' are more common alternatives, leaving 'bowelled' largely confined to specialist, historical, and literary registers.
verb (past simple and past participle)British past tense and past participle of the verb 'bowel', chiefly meaning to disembowel — to remove the bowels or internal organs of a person or animal.
- To remove the bowels or internal organs of an animal or person; to disembowel.
"The fishmonger had bowelled and cleaned the trout before it reached the counter."
"The hunter bowelled the deer in the field so the meat would keep."
"The medieval chronicle described how the traitor was drawn and bowelled before the crowd."
In British English, one extra letter separates rolling a cricket ball ('bowled') from emptying a body of its insides ('bowelled').
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of bowelled
Bowelled comes from the verb 'bowel', formed from the noun 'bowel', which arrived in Middle English via Old French 'bouel' from Latin 'botellus', a diminutive of 'botulus' meaning 'sausage'. The verb sense of extracting the entrails developed naturally from the noun's anatomical meaning. The double-L spelling reflects standard British orthography for verbs ending in -el, while American English simplifies it to 'boweled'. Related words sharing the Latin root include 'botulism', named after the same sausage-shaped organism association.
Related word forms
How bowelled is actually used
'Bowelled' is the British spelling; American English uses 'boweled'. The verb form is relatively rare outside hunting, butchery, and historical or violent literary contexts, where it appears most often as part of 'drawn and quartered'-style descriptions. In modern everyday English, 'gutted' or 'disembowelled' are more common choices.
Easily confused with bowelled
'Bowled' is the past tense of 'bowl' (to roll a ball, as in cricket) or to be knocked over, whereas 'bowelled' relates to removing the bowels or entrails.