bowel

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: bow=el

CIDE DICTIONARY

bowel, n. [OE. bouel, bouele, OF. boel, boele, F. boyau, fr. L. botellus a small sausage, in LL. also intestine, dim. of L. botulus sausage.].

•  One of the intestines of an animal; an entrail, especially of man; a gut; -- generally used in the plural.  [1913 Webster]

  "He burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out."  [1913 Webster]
•  Hence, figuratively: The interior part of anything; as, the bowels of the earth.  [1913 Webster]

  "His soldiers . . . cried out amain,
  And rushed into the bowels of the battle."  [1913 Webster]
•  The seat of pity or kindness. Hence: Tenderness; compassion.  Shak.  [1913 Webster]

  "Bloody Bonner, that corpulent tyrant, full (as one said) of guts, and empty of bowels."  [1913 Webster]
•  Offspring.  Shak.  [1913 Webster]

bowel, v. t. 

 To take out the bowels of; to eviscerate; to disembowel.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

bowel, n.
1 a the part of the alimentary canal below the stomach. b the intestine.
2 (in pl.) the depths; the innermost parts (the bowels of the earth).

Idiom

bowel movement
1 discharge from the bowels; defecation.
2 the faeces discharged from the body.

Etymology

ME f. OF buel f. L botellus little sausage