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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

sowl.

A dainty; a relish; a sauce; anything eaten with bread.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/saʊl//ˈsaʊəl//suːl/dialectal
  1. A dainty; a relish; a sauce; anything eaten with bread.

    UK · dialectal
Where this word comes from

From Middle English sowel, souel, suvel (“food eaten with bread; food in general”), from Old English sufel, sufol (“anything (especially relish) eaten with bread; sowl”), from Proto-West Germanic *sufl, from Proto-Germanic *suflą (“entremets, viands”), from Proto-Indo-European *seu-, *sew- (“juice; moisture; rain”). The word is cognate with Danish sul (“sowl”), Middle Dutch suvel, zuvel (Dutch zuivel (“dairy products”)), Middle Low German suvel, süvel, suffel (“sowl”), Old High German sufil, sufili, Old Norse sufl, Norwegian suvl, sovl, sul (“milk porridge; food eaten with bread, porridge or soup”), Saterland Frisian süfel (“dairy products”), Swedish sovel (“sowl”), West Frisian suvel (“dairy products”).

verb/səʊl/Received-Pronunciation/soʊl/General-American
  1. To pull (especially an animal) by the ears; to drag about.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Origin unknown; compare German zaulen, zauseln, zausen (“to tug, drag”). See also tousle.

verb/səʊl/Received-Pronunciation/soʊl/General-American
  1. To soil or stain; to dirty.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English sōlen (“to become dirty or soiled; to make dirty, soil; to be defiled, polluted”), from Old English solian (“to make or become foul, sully”), from Proto-Germanic *sulwōną, *sulwijaną; compare sullow and sully, and Danish søle (“to make dirty, defile”), Gothic 𐌱𐌹𐍃𐌰𐌿𐌻𐌾𐌰𐌽 (bisauljan, “to bemire”), Middle Dutch soluwen, seulewen (“to besmirch, soil”), Old French soillier, souillier, soller (“to dirty, stain; to tarnish (a reputation, etc.)”) (modern French souiller), Old High German solagōn, bisullen (“to make dirty”), German suhlen (“to make dirty, soil”), Old Saxon sulian (“to mire, soil”), West Flemish sowelen, suwelen.

noun
  1. Archaic spelling of soul.

    alt-of · archaic
Where this word comes from

From Middle English soul, soule, sowel, sawel (“soul”). See further at soul.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.