A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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First published 1937 (DOST Vol. I).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1399-1599
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Bowellis, Bowallis, n. pl. Also: bowelis, -ys, -ellys, bouellis, bwelis, bowells; bowalys, bouallis. [ME. boweles, -is, bowelles, buels, etc., pl. of bowel(e, -ell(e, bouel, etc., OF. bouel, buel, masc., and bouele, buele, fem.]
1. The bowels, entrails.(a) a1400 Legends of the Saints xxxvii. 235.
The self bowelis als saw he In gret part vncouerit be c1400 Troy-bk. ii. 437.
When the inward bowelles were … Grathed & leyd on the alter c1420 Wynt. v. 588.
He gert oppyn hyr and owte ta Hyr bowellys c1420 Ib. viii. 3561.
Hys bowelys hym before berand a1500 Henr. Orph. 433.
This Theseus lay … And wyth the grype his bowellis ryvin and rent a1508 Kennedy Flyt. 279.
He birnis in hell, body, banis, and bowellis 1531 Bell. Boece I. p. xxxvii.
Within the bowellis of thir geis, is ane fatnes of singulare medicine a1585 Polwart Flyt. 559.
With blasted bowels, bowden with bruised blude 1596 Dalr. I. 289/11.
All war … heidet with ane aix, thair bwelis apned [etc.](b) c1420 Wynt. i. 368.
Till bak and bowalys all to brussyde c1420 Ib. v. 3370.
Quhill hys bowalys wythin hym brystyt c1450-2 Howlat 731.
The Baptist, within the bowallis off Elizabeth c1475 Acts of Schir William Wallace x. 383.
He … in the bowalys him bar Wyth a scharp sper c1515 Asloan MS I. 214/11.
His belly raif and all his bowallis come out 1543 3rd Rep. Hist. MSS. App. 404/1.
Hir bouallis [were] erdit in oure Lady Kirkfig. 1562-3 Winȝet I. 132/18.
We exhort ȝow in the bowelis of Jesus Christ c1568 Lauder Minor P. i. 242.
His wourd imbrasing And it into thair inwert bowellis placing 1595 Edinb. B. Rec. V. 146.
Bursars … that ar nocht of thair awin bowellis 1599 Elgin Rec. II. 70.
To reconcile sic personis as ar at variance in thair bowellis
2. The inward or central part(s) of a thing; the midst.1513 Doug. iii. viii. 136.
The bowellis or entralis of the hyll 1558-66 Knox I. 401.
In the bowellis of thair natyve cuntrey 1581 Aberd. B. Rec. II. 40; 1581 Ib. 41.
To rais … diuisioun withtin this burght and bowallis thairof 1585 Reg. Privy C. III. 752.
[The pestilence having] enterit … within the bouellis of this cuntrey 1592 Rec. Convention of Royal Burghs I. 384.
Within the bowellis of the said burch
