Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A pear-shaped synthetic sapphire, ruby, or other alumina-based gem, produced by fusing and tinting alumina.
  • noun A round loaf of bread.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The proper French spelling of buhl.
  • noun An obsolete form of bowl.
  • noun In Greek antiquity, a legislative council, originally aristocratic, consisting of the heads of the citizen families, sitting under the presidency of the king.
  • noun The legislative assembly of modern Greece.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Same as buhl, buhlwork.
  • noun (Gr. Antiq.) A legislative council of elders or chiefs; a senate.
  • noun Legislature of modern Greece. See Legislature.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun One of the bowls used in the French game of boules.
  • noun A single-crystal ingot produced by synthetic means.
  • noun A round loaf of bread.
  • noun woodworking A through-sawn log with the slices restacked in the order and orientation they originally had in the log, usually with waney edges.
  • noun woodworking Alternative form of buhl.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an inlaid furniture decoration; tortoiseshell and yellow and white metal form scrolls in cabinetwork

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, ball, from Old French, bubble, from Latin bulla.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

French boule

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Alteration of Boulle. See buhl.

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Examples

  • Silicon wafers are sliced by a wire saw from a large cylinder of silicon, called a boule, but there is material called kerf loss during the process.

    unknown title 2009

  • They live in a little peasant's room near a stable; they eat the food of the wounded, not very varied -- 'boule' every two weeks.

    The Living Present Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton 1902

  • Or spoon a boule or two into a bowl of soup, then ladle it out when the broth hits the desired salinity.

    Bits & Bites: News You Can Eat 2011

  • Perhaps this motivated me to try a shot with too much panache or maybe it just slipped out of my hand, but the moment the boule left my hand, I knew it was wrong.

    Petanque - French Word-A-Day 2009

  • Athenian laws were prefaced with the statement Edoxe te boule kai to demo, "It is the considered opinion of parliament and the people".

    Greece is standing up to EU neocolonialism | Costas Douzinas and Petros Papaconstantinou 2011

  • Perhaps this motivated me to try a shot with too much panache or maybe it just slipped out of my hand, but the moment the boule left my hand, I knew it was wrong.

    French Word-A-Day: 2009

  • (In fact, there is a boule tournement no matter when or where we meet up.)

    degouliner - French Word-A-Day 2009

  • This year I will go to Marseille to find the firm "La boule blue".

    Petanque - French Word-A-Day 2009

  • The DLT is where it shines: duck bacon with fried duck egg, heirloom tomato, watercress and garlic aioli is nestled between slices of country boule $16.

    Duck, Duck, Goose 2011

  • So he "invented" a game where the players must keep their feet ancored (pied ancre) while throwing the boule and thus saving his knees!

    Petanque - French Word-A-Day 2009

Comments

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  • I'd only ever encountered boule in bakeries, but:

    1. A pear-shaped synthetic sapphire, ruby, or other alumina-based gem, produced by fusing and tinting alumina.

    2. A round loaf of white bread.

    (French, ball, from Old French, bubble, from Latin bulla.)

    3. The lower house of the modern Greek legislature.

    4. - a. The senate of 400 founded by Solon in ancient Athens.

    - b. A legislative assembly in any one of the ancient Greek states.

    (Greek boul, assembly; see gwel- in Indo-European roots.)

    5. an inlaid furniture decoration; tortoiseshell and yellow and white metal form scrolls in cabinetwork (syn: boulle)

    May 21, 2007