jowl

• jole, joll (obsolete)

• enPR: joul, IPA^(key): /dʒaʊl/
• Rhymes: -aʊl

From Middle English chawl, chavel (“cheek, jaw”), from Old English ċeafl, from Proto-Germanic *kaflaz (compare Dutch kevels (“jawbones”), Alemannic German Chifel), variant of *kebrą (compare German Kiefer), enlargement of Proto-Germanic *kebą (compare Low German Keve, Keben (“jaw; gill”) (pl.), Rhine Franconian Kife), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵebʰ- (compare Irish gob (“mouth”), Lithuanian žė̃bti (“to chew”), Czech žábra (“gills”), Avestan 𐬰𐬀𐬟𐬀𐬭‎ (zafar, “mouth”)).

jowl (plural jowls)

1. the jaw, jawbone; especially one of the lateral parts of the mandible.
   • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, Moonfleet Chapter 4

     I had lain, therefore, all that time, cheek by jowl with Blackbeard himself, with only a thin shell of tinder wood to keep him from me, and now had thrust my hand into his coffin and plucked away his beard.

jowl (third-person singular simple present jowls, present participle jowling, simple past and past participle jowled)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To throw, dash, or knock.
   • Shakespeare

     How the knave jowls it to the ground.

Middle English cholle (“wattle, jowl”), from Old English ċeole, ċeolu (“throat”), from Proto-Germanic *kelǭ (“gullet”) (compare West Frisian kiel, Dutch keel, German Kehle), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷelu- (“to swallow”) (compare Old Irish in·gilid (“to graze”), Irish goile (“stomach”), Latin gula (“throat”), gluttiō (“to swallow”), Russian глота́ть (glotátʹ, “to swallow, gulp”), Ancient Greek δέλεαρ (délear, “lure”), Armenian կլանել (klanel, “I swallow”), Persian گلو‎ (galû), Hindi गला (galā, “neck, throat”)).

jowl (plural jowls)

1. a fold of fatty flesh under the chin, around the cheeks, or lower jaw (as a dewlap, wattle, crop, or double chin).
2. the cheek; especially the cheek meat of a hog.
3. cut of fish including the head and adjacent parts

• jowly
• cheek and jowl
• cheek by jowl
• tooth-to-jowl