JOWL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does jowl mean? 

• JOWL (noun)
  The noun JOWL has 2 senses:

1. the jaw in vertebrates that is hinged to open the mouth

2. a fullness and looseness of the flesh of the lower cheek and jaw (characteristic of aging)

  Familiarity information: JOWL used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• JOWL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The jaw in vertebrates that is hinged to open the mouth

Classified under:

Nouns denoting body parts

Synonyms:

jawbone; jowl; lower jaw; lower jawbone; mandible; mandibula; mandibular bone; submaxilla

Hypernyms ("jowl" is a kind of...):

articulator (a movable speech organ)

jaw (the part of the skull of a vertebrate that frames the mouth and holds the teeth)

Meronyms (parts of "jowl"):

gnathion (the most inferior point of the mandible in the midline)

gonion (the craniometric point on either side at the apex of the lower jaw)

mandibular notch (small indentation in the middle of the lower jawbone)

pogonion (the craniometric point that is the most forward-projecting point on the anterior surface of the chin)

symphysion (the most forward point of the alveolar process of the mandible)

condylar process; condyloid process; mandibular condyle (the condyle of the ramus of the mandible that articulates with the skull)

coronoid process of the mandible (the coronoid process that provides an attachment for the temporal muscle)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "jowl"):

lantern jaw (a long thin lower jaw)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A fullness and looseness of the flesh of the lower cheek and jaw (characteristic of aging)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting body parts

Hypernyms ("jowl" is a kind of...):

feature; lineament (the characteristic parts of a person's face: eyes and nose and mouth and chin)

Holonyms ("jowl" is a part of...):

face; human face (the front of the human head from the forehead to the chin and ear to ear)

Derivation:

jowly (having sagging folds of flesh beneath the chin or lower jaw)

 Context examples 

Then their noses touched, and he felt the warm little tongue of the puppy on his jowl.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

It was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Below, was the heavy jowl of the sensualist curving in a broad crease over his cravat.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Even Ruth was hurt, for she had some regard for appearances, and her lover, cheek by jowl with Maria, at the head of that army of Portuguese ragamuffins, was not a pretty sight.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

He summoned them before him in apparitional procession: Bernard Higginbotham arm in arm with Mr. Butler, 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.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)