dowel

[ dou-uh l ]

/ ˈdaʊ əl /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR dowel ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

Also called dowel pin. Carpentry. a pin, usually round, fitting into holes in two adjacent pieces to prevent their slipping or to align them.

a piece of wood driven into a hole drilled in a masonry wall to receive nails, as for fastening woodwork.

a round wooden rod of relatively small diameter.

Dentistry. a peg, usually of metal, set into the root canal of a natural tooth to give additional support to an artificial crown.

verb (used with object), dow·eled, dow·el·ing or (especially British) dow·elled, dow·el·ling.

to reinforce or furnish with a dowel or dowels.

RELATED WORDS

peg, pin

Nearby words

dowager's hump, dowden, dowden, edward, dowding, dowdy, dowel, doweling, dowell, dower, dower chest, dower house

Origin of dowel

1300–50; Middle English dowle < Middle Low German dovel plug; compare German Döbel, Dübel, Old High German tubili

Related formsun·dow·eled, adjectiveun·dow·elled, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for dowel

The pin may be stuck in the upper end of the dowel, D, shown in Fig. 108.
How Two Boys Made Their Own Electrical Apparatus|Thomas M. (Thomas Matthew) St. John
A groove cut in the latter allows the weighted board to fit tightly when it falls, the dowel with bait dropping into the groove.
Carpentry and Woodwork|Edwin W. Foster
The size of the dowel, and its location, can be determined by the diameter and the length of the screw.
Mission Furniture|H. H. Windsor
They may be fastened to the top of the front posts with round-head screws or dowel pins.
Mission Furniture|H. H. Windsor

Buttonhole stitch over the dowel keeping the lower thread down and the upper thread on top.
The Library of Work and Play: Needlecraft|Effie Archer Archer

British Dictionary definitions for dowel

dowel

/ (ˈdaʊəl) /

noun

a wooden or metal peg that fits into two corresponding holes to join two adjacent partsAlso called: dowel pin

Word Origin for dowel

C14: from Middle Low German dövel plug, from Old High German tubili; related to Greek thuphos wedge

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

Word Origin and History for dowel

dowel

mid-14c., dule "rim or section of a wheel," perhaps akin to Middle Low German dovel "plug, tap" (of a cask). Modern meaning is first attested 1794.