Now dial. Also 6 iole. [f. JOWL, JOLL v.1]
1. A bump; a blow, esp. on the head; a knock, a stroke.
c. 1520. More, Mery Geste, 259. The wenche behinde lent him … Many a iole about the nole with a great battill dore.
1877. N. W. Linc. Gloss., Jowl, a jolt, a knock.
1883. G. C. Davies, Norfolk Broads, xix. (1884), 143. The wherrymen seize the opportunity … to plunge the spears into the mud, and so get a good many eels. The strokes of the spear are called ‘jowles.’
2. A knock on the wall of a coal-pit, given as a signal, or to ascertain its thickness: cf. JOWL v.1 4.
1851. Greenwell, Coal-trade Terms Northumb. & Durh., 32. Jowl, a sort of ‘tattoo,’ beaten alternately upon the face of two places or drifts near holing, or intended to hole into each other, by a person in each place, for the purpose of ascertaining, by the sound, their relative positions.
3. pl. Jowls, a game resembling hockey.
1855. Robinson, Whitby Gloss., s.v. Jowl, The game of ‘Jowls’ … appears to have no more aim in it than that of sending the projectile from place to place by way of bodily exercise.
4. A single stroke of a bell; the tolling, knell or clang of a bell: cf. JOW sb. 2. Chiefly dial.
1822. Scott, Nigel, x. The dinner-bell is going to sound—hark, it is clearing its rusty throat with a preliminary jowl.
1883. Thomson, Leddy May, 4 (E.D.D.). The deid-bell rings wi’ solemn jowl.
