English

Alternative forms

• jole, joll (obsolete)

Noun

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.

2. the cheek; especially the cheek meat of a hog.

Translations

Verb

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.

Etymology 2

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 Irish in-gilim ‎(“I graze”), goile ‎(“stomach”), Latin gula ‎(“throat”), gluttīre ‎(“to swallow”), Russian глота́ть ‎(glotátʹ, “to swallow, gulp”), Greek δέλεαρ ‎(délear, “lure”), Armenian կլանել ‎(klanel, “I swallow”), Persian گلو ‎(galû), Hindi गला ‎(galā, “neck, throat”)).

Noun

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. cut of fish including the head and adjacent parts

Translations

Derived terms

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