v. Also 6–7 em-, enbowell, imbowel(l. [In senses 1–2 ad. OF. enboweler (recorded in pa. pple. enbowelé = OF. emboulé, *emboelé) an alteration (with substitution of the prefix em- for es-) of OFr. esboueler, f. es- repr. L. ex- out + bouel BOWEL. In senses 3–4 f. EN- + BOWEL.]

1

  I.  1. trans. To remove the (abdominal) viscera from (a body), either for the purpose of embalming, or as part of a judicial penalty; = DISEMBOWEL.

2

1521.  Test. Ebor. (Surtees), V. 141. Item I will that aftir my deth my body be emboweld.

3

1596.  Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., V. iv. 109. Imbowell’d will I see thee by and by.

4

1640.  Slingsby, Diary (1836), 64. Wch made me … send for a chirurgeon from York to embowel him.

5

1734.  trans. Rollin’s Anc. Hist. (1827), III. VI. § 3. 124. Having prepared their bodies for the purpose by embowelling them.

6

1854.  Tait’s Mag., XXI. 488. He is the diviner who must embowel the beasts of sacrifice.

7

1867.  Freeman, Norm. Conq., I. vi. 490. Others he put in prison, others he embowelled.

8

  2.  transf. and fig.

9

1589.  Nashe, Almond for Parrat, 20. I haue not halfe emboweld my register.

10

1601.  Shaks., All’s Well, I. iii. 247. The Schooles embowel’d of their doctrine.

11

1667.  Milton, P. L., VI. 587. Whose roar Emboweld with outragious noise the air And all her entrails tore.

12

1678.  Lively Orac., viii. § 26. 315. How curiously do men … embowel a text to find a pretence for cavil and objection.

13

1790.  Burke, Fr. Rev., 128. In England we have not yet been completely embowelled of our natural entrails.

14

  II.  † 3. To put, convey into the bowels; in quots. transf. and fig. Obs.

15

1596.  Fitz-Geffrey, Sir F. Drake (1881), 44. On Ulysses Circe did bestow A blather, where the windes imboweld were.

16

1629.  Donne, Whitsunday Serm. (1640), xxxi. 307. All was embowelled, and enwombed in the waters.

17

1633.  W. Struther, True Happines, 8. When God and man inhere mutually in other, and are enbowelled by mutuall love.

18

1634.  Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 26. His bodie was … imbowelled in a spacious coffin, the Ocean. Ibid., 105. A streame … arising from Mount Taurus, here embowels it selfe into that Sea.

19

  † b.  To fill the bowels of (an animal). Obs.

20

1607.  Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1658), 566. The young whelps of VVeasels being imbowelled with salt.

21

  † 4.  intr. To convey food into the bowels. Obs.

22

1618.  Latham, 2nd Bk. Falconry (1633), 18. It will oftentimes very much molest her in her putting ouer and imbowelling.

23