cowl
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: koul
ipa: /kaʊl/
note: Mid-Ulster
ipa: /kəʉl/
homophone: cawl
rhymes: -aʊl
rhymes: -aʊəl
Forms: form: cowls
Etymology: 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.
Senses: examples: text: 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 strayte rules as wyde as the hodes of theyr cowles.
text: "What differ more (you cry) than Crown and Cowl?" / I'll tell you, friend: a Wiſe man and a Fool.
ref: 1734, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], epistle IV, London: […] J[ohn] Wilford, […], →OCLC, page 71, lines 189–190:
text: The hermit, as if wishing to answer to the confidence of his guest, threw back his cowl, and showed a round bullet head belonging to a man in the prime of life.
ref: 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, chapter II, in Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC, pages 28–29:
text: The roof came down steep and black like a cowl, reaching out beyond the wide galleries that encircled the yellow stuccoed house.
ref: 1893, Kate Chopin, Désirée’s Baby:
text: She brought the corner of the quilt over his head like a cowl and pulled it down over his face.
ref: 1939 April 14, John Steinbeck, chapter 13, in The Grapes of Wrath, New York, N.Y.: The Viking Press, →OCLC, page 145:
glosses: A monk's hood that can be pulled forward to cover the face; a robe with such a hood attached to it.
glosses: A mask that covers the majority of the head.
examples: text: […] fire was spurting up from the torn engine cowl and glowing in the cockpit.
ref: 1944, Nevil Shute, chapter 8, in Pastoral, London: Pan Books:
glosses: A thin protective covering over all or part of an engine; also cowling.
examples: text: In the extreme clearness of the atmosphere the line of every roof, the cowl of every chimney was perceptible […]
ref: 1928, Virginia Woolf, chapter 4, in Orlando: A Biography, London: The Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished as Orlando: A Biography (eBook no. 0200331h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, July 2015:
text: I’m sure I’m very sorry, but it’s always this way when the wind’s in the east, sir, and we’ve tried ever so many sorts of cowls and chimney-pots, you’d be surprised.
ref: 1933, Dorothy L. Sayers, “Sleuths on the Scent”, in Hangman’s Holiday, New York: Harper & Row, published 1987, page 96:
text: Sail-like, the oast-house towers of Horsmonden seem almost to plough the rich soil of their Kentish hopfield like graceful yachts on a gently rolling sea. And sail-like, their wind vanes turn the angled cowls with the breeze to create a vacuum inside that draws up hot air to dry the hops on their slatted floor below. This is the Garden of England, and the village is surrounded by orchards and pastures, as well as hopfields - […].
ref: 1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 227, photo caption:
glosses: A usually hood-shaped covering used to increase the draft of a chimney and prevent backflow.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1902 January–March, Joseph Conrad, “Typhoon”, in George R. Halkett, editor, The Pall Mall Magazine, volume XXVI, London: Printed by Hazell, Watson & Viney, →OCLC, chapter II, page 101:
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: A ship's ventilator with a bell-shaped top which can be swivelled to catch the wind and force it below.
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: A vertical projection of a ship's funnel that directs the smoke away from the bridge.
glosses: A monk.
Derived terms: cowl flap
cowlless
cowlneck
cowl unit
encowl
friar's cowl
Kilmarnock cowl
the cowl does not make the monk
uncowl
Related terms: english: having a hood-like covering or component
translation: having a hood-like covering or component
word: cucullated
alt: cowl-shaped
word: cuculliform