cowl
Part of speech: noun
verb
adj
Morphological type: simple
Topics: nautical
transport
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.
Inflected forms:
form: cowls
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: cowls
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: cowling
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: cowled
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: cowled
pos: verb
tags: past
form: more cowl
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: most cowl
pos: adj
tags: superlative
Senses:
gloss: A monk's hood that can be pulled forward to cover the face; a robe with such a hood attached to it.
pos: noun
examples: 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.
"What differ more (you cry) than Crown and Cowl?" / I'll tell you, friend: a Wiſe man and a Fool.
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.
The roof came down steep and black like a cowl, reaching out beyond the wide galleries that encircled the yellow stuccoed house.
She brought the corner of the quilt over his head like a cowl and pulled it down over his face.
gloss: A mask that covers the majority of the head.
pos: noun
gloss: A thin protective covering over all or part of an engine; also cowling.
pos: noun
examples: […] fire was spurting up from the torn engine cowl and glowing in the cockpit.
gloss: A usually hood-shaped covering used to increase the draft of a chimney and prevent backflow.
pos: noun
examples: In the extreme clearness of the atmosphere the line of every roof, the cowl of every chimney was perceptible […]
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.
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 - […].
gloss: A ship's ventilator with a bell-shaped top which can be swivelled to catch the wind and force it below.
pos: noun
examples: 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.
gloss: A vertical projection of a ship's funnel that directs the smoke away from the bridge.
pos: noun
gloss: A monk.
pos: noun
tags: metonymically
gloss: To cover with, or as if with, a cowl (hood).
pos: verb
examples: Why cowl thy face beneath the Mourner’s hood,
But he by wild and way […]
Rode till the star above the wakening sun,
Beside that tower where Percivale was cowl’d [i.e. became a monk],
Glanced from the rosy forehead of the dawn.
The sky was cowled with cloud, all except a narrow chink where it met the horizon.
gloss: To wrap or form (something made of fabric) like a cowl.
pos: verb
examples: When he came downstairs from the bar with the whiskies, she had found a sweater for herself and had cowled a thick raincoat over Sligo.
As the evenings got colder, he used to reach up and pull down the green baize cloth, and cowl it around himself and wear it like a kind of igloo.
gloss: To make a monk of (a person).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To scrape together
pos: verb
tags: Yorkshire
examples: COWL, scrape together. "Cowlin t'cinders up."
gloss: cold
pos: adj
examples: An' bitther cowl; an' min' ye I had play,
Related words: cucullated
cuculliform
Derived words: cowl flap
cowlless
cowlneck
cowl unit
encowl
friar's cowl
Kilmarnock cowl
the cowl does not make the monk
uncowl
Translations: