jowl

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the loose flesh of the lower cheek or jaw, especially when it hangs with age

   The old hound's left jowl sagged below its mouth.

2. 2
   noun

   the cheek or side of the face, especially in the phrase cheek by jowl, meaning very close together

   The tiny tables stood cheek by jowl along the crowded wall.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Jowl is an Old English word meaning “cheek.” This sense survives in cheek by jowl, “very close together,” whose original form was cheek by cheek.

From Middle English cholle, 'jowl or wattle,' related to Old English ceole, 'throat.' The inherited anatomical word survives especially for loose flesh along the lower cheek and in the fixed expression cheek by jowl, literally with one person's cheek beside another's.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary