Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Synonyms

bowl over

British  

verb

  1. informal to surprise (a person) greatly, esp in a pleasant way; astound; amaze

    he was bowled over by our gift

  2. to knock (a person or thing) down; cause to fall over

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

bowl over Idioms  
  1. Astonish, surprise greatly, overwhelm, as in I was simply bowled over by their wonderful performance. This term originated in cricket, where it means “to knock all the bails off the wicket.” [Mid-1800s]


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

Start by whisking a few yolks with some lemon juice in a bowl over gently simmering water — you want steam, not direct heat.

From Salon ● Jun. 5, 2025

A knee injury has severely limited Stokes' ability to bowl over the last few years so to see him run in unencumbered in his fourth spell of the day would have delighted Brendon McCullum.

From BBC ● May 17, 2024

Place mixing bowl over a pan of simmering water.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 2, 2023

The Oilers used their size to bowl over the smaller Kings and they capitalized on their first power play to take a 2-0 lead.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 20, 2023

I carried my bowl over and stood next to her and kept eating, which, when I thought about it later, seemed kind of messed up, but at the time we didn’t know what was happening.

From "The Book of Unknown Americans" by Cristina Henríquez

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

Get a word

Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Dictionary.com's Learning Companion

Go beyond just looking up words.
Remember them forever with VocabTrainer.

Start training