Definitions

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

  • noun The flesh of the lower cheeks or lower jaw, especially when plump or flaccid.
  • noun A fleshy part similar to a jowl, such as the dewlap of a cow or the wattle of a fowl.
  • noun The jaw, especially the lower jaw.
  • noun The cheek.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To strike or dash, as the jowl or head; butt; clash with violence, as horns.
  • To scold; “jaw.”
  • In coal-mining, to hammer on the coal for the purpose of ascertaining what thickness intervenes between two contiguous workings.
  • noun The cheek.
  • noun The cheek or head of a pig, salmon, etc., prepared for the table: as, jowl and greens is a Virginia dish.

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

  • noun The cheek; the jaw.
  • noun with the cheeks close together; side by side; in close proximity.
  • transitive verb obsolete To throw, dash, or knock.

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

  • noun a fold of fatty flesh under the chin, around the cheeks, or lower jaw (as a dewlap, wattle, crop, or double chin).
  • noun cut of fish including the head and adjacent parts
  • noun the jaw, jawbone; especially one of the lateral parts of the mandible.
  • noun the cheek; especially the cheek meat of a hog.
  • verb obsolete, transitive To throw, dash, or knock.

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

  • noun a fullness and looseness of the flesh of the lower cheek and jaw (characteristic of aging)
  • noun the jaw in vertebrates that is hinged to open the mouth

Etymologies

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

[Alteration of Middle English cholle (influenced by Middle English joue, jaw or jol, head); perhaps akin to Old English ceole, throat, dewlap.]

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

[Middle English chavel, chaule, jaule (influenced by joue, jaw or jol, head), from Old English ceafl.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English cholle ("wattle, jowl"), from Old English ċeole, ċeolu ("throat"), from Proto-Germanic *kelōn (“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 глотать (glotatʹ, "to swallow, gulp"), Greek δέλεαρ (délear, "lure"), Armenian կլանել (klanel, "I swallow"), Persian گلو (galû), Hindi गला (galā, "neck, throat")).

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English chawl, chavel ("cheek, jaw"), from Old English ċeafl, from Proto-Germanic *keblan (compare Dutch kevels ("jawbones"), Swiss German Chifel), variant of *kebran (compare German Kiefer), enlargement of Proto-Germanic *keban (compare Low German Keve, Keben ("jaw; gill") (pl.), Palatinate German Kife), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵebʰ- (compare Irish gob ("mouth"), Lithuanian žė̃bti ("to chew"), Czech žábra ("gills"), Avestan  (zafar, "mouth")).

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Examples

  • He was armed with a hammer, and with this he struck one of the metal guiders of the ruined cage, giving the pitman's "jowl" or signal, "three times three, and one over."

    Memoirs of Sir Wemyss Reid 1842-1885 1887

  • He went to the edge of the shaft, and then heard unmistakably, far below him, the "jowl" for which we had listened in vain on the previous morning.

    Memoirs of Sir Wemyss Reid 1842-1885 1887

  • 'jowl' of earthenware -- that was the local word for it -- a batch of dough was set before a fire to rise.

    Despair's Last Journey David Christie Murray

  • What did they do, all the chaps I knew, the chaps in the clubs with whom I'd been cheek by jowl for heaven knows how long?

    Chapter IX 2010

  • Hermann von Schmidt cheek by jowl with Charley Hapgood, and one by one and in pairs he judged them and dismissed them — judged them by the standards of intellect and morality he had learned from the books.

    Chapter 29 2010

  • I've long been a secret fan of those day-glo curling stones which spend all day drying out under chip shop heat lamps, cheek by jowl with the savs and cheese pies, but I really fell in love with the fish cake when a far worldlier boyfriend whisked me off to lunch at Le Caprice for my 18th birthday.

    How to cook perfect fishcakes 2011

  • But of march impertinence by jowl with imitation we find a tiny of a many gloriously relocating denunciation ever combined in English.

    Archive 2009-11-01 admin 2009

  • "That it's a crying shame for a man to kape company with -- with you, an 'at the same time be chake by jowl with a woman iv her stamp."

    CHAPTER 16 2010

  • But of march impertinence by jowl with imitation we find a tiny of a many gloriously relocating denunciation ever combined in English.

    Philadelphia Reflections: Shakspere Society of Philadelphia admin 2009

  • "I was just wondering which was the muckiest, Mr.St. Vincent or you -- or myself, with whom you have both been cheek by jowl."

    CHAPTER 16 2010

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  • unit of excess weight: lumpens x fignewtons

    February 23, 2008

  • Haha!

    February 24, 2008