Obs. exc. Sc. and north. dial. (bul). Also 6 boule, Sc. bowle, bulis (pl.), 8–9 bool. [perh. a. MDu. boghel or MLG. bogel (mod.Du. beugel, Ger. bügel) bow, hoop, ring, f. stem of OTeut. *beugan to bend, BOW.]
1. Anything bent into a curve; a curvature. Sc.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, III. viii. 55. A port thair is … In maner of a bow maid bowle [v.r. boule] or bay.
1808. Jamieson, s.v., ‘The bool of the arm,’ when it is bent, i. e. the curvature.
2. esp. The curved or semicircular handle of a pail, tea-kettle, pint-stoup, etc.; the annular part of a key; the holes in scissors for the thumb and finger. Bouls, bools, a movable handle of two parts for a pot, called also clips. Sc. and north. Eng.
1560. Aberdeen Reg., V. 24 (Jam.). Ane pair of pot bulis.
1570. Levins, Manip., 218. Ye Boule of a potte, ansa, capulum.
1816. Scott, Antiq., III. 359. Gloss.,. ‘To come to the hand like the boul o’ a pint-stoup’ … as easily and agreeably as the handle of a drinking vessel comes to the hand of a tippler.
3. A child’s hoop for bowling. dial. (N.E. England.)
