dowel
Americannoun
-
dowels
plural
-
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)
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of dowel
1300–50; Middle English dowle < Middle Low German dovel plug; compare German Döbel, Dübel, Old High German tubili
Explanation
A dowel is a peg, usually made of wood, that fastens two objects together. A dowel might connect a shelf to a bracket, for example. Dowels are used in furniture making to hold different parts together, such as a table leg and a table top. A dowel usually works by fitting into a slot or hole in each of the two adjacent pieces. Elaborate cakes with many different tiers might have dowels hidden inside them, connecting each separate cake to the next. The word dowel is believed to stem from the same root as the Middle Low German dovel, "plug" or "tap."
Vocabulary lists containing dowel
Whirligig
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
The Sword of Summer
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Prairie Lotus
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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:
By the time she folds it shut with a long wooden dowel, the flatbread is already bubbly and browned.
From Washington Times ● Apr. 21, 2023
Maintenance is easy, too: He just turns it with a rebar dowel and hoses it down when it's dry.
From Salon ● Aug. 18, 2022
I put a small dowel down the center to keep the layers from shifting.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 30, 2022
No, a guy walks into a gallery, carrying a bar — a wooden dowel painted in bright stripes of color.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 11, 2022
They were heavy constructions of plywood, a sanded dowel for backstroke starts, puke-green carpet torn from somebody's basement stapled into the sloping tops for traction, and lane numbers spray-painted in orange on the backs.
From "The Miseducation of Cameron Post" by emily m. danforth
A thin slab will be cut in the stone blocks that make up the staircase, and the portrait will be fitted in and secured with stainless steel dowels.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 12, 2023
Try custom neon Lucite dowels to give it a Lite-Brite vibe, or finish the board in a lime wash paint to add texture and patina.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 19, 2022
It was the first house I had ever been in that did not have wardrobes, no three-piece set of veneered chipboard, that leaned precariously as the glue loosened in the dowels.
From The New Yorker ● Jan. 6, 2020
They spread the dough onto silicon mats, covered it in parchment paper and began to roll it smooth with wooden dowels.
From New York Times ● Dec. 20, 2019
Red, black, and white threads zip in and around a set of dowels.
From "The Belles" by Dhonielle Clayton
Verdi Biographer Francis Toye. ¶ Its jackets are built with a doweled spine wide enough to carry lettering.
From Time Magazine Archive
A doweled joint is made by jointing the two edges carefully, boring holes opposite each other and inserting dowel pins when the two edges are glued together.
From Handwork in Wood by William Noyes
In a doweled butt-joint the dowels may go clear thru the outside member, and be finished as buttons on the outside, where they show.
From Handwork in Wood by William Noyes
The frame is of the same thickness, with mortise and tenon joints doweled together.
From The Colonial Architecture of Philadelphia by Frank Cousins
The way we've made that panel, Gus, with those end cleats doweled on and the shellacking of both sides—it'll never warp.
From Radio Boys Cronies Or, Bill Brown's Radio by Wayne Whipple
The second section was brought up from Birmingham and was eventually put back together with the larger piece by a stone mason using copper tube doweling.
From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2022
The new supergrip glues have also been a boon to the basement Sheraton: they will hold wood joints together more durably than the most exquisite doweling.
From Time Magazine Archive
The construction may be further strengthened by also doweling the end of this stretcher into the legs.
From Handwork in Wood by William Noyes
There is, to be sure, a prejudice against dowels on the part of cabinet-makers due, possibly, to the willingness to have it appear that doweling is a device of inferior mechanics.
From Handwork in Wood by William Noyes
The old house had been built of the best materials, and its woodwork dowelled and mortised and tongued and grooved by men who knew their trade and had not learned to scamp their work.
From The Colonel's Dream by Charles W. (Charles Waddell) Chesnutt
These instruments consist of two pieces of wood dowelled together with twenty holes that taper from 7/16 inch to 3/16 inch.
From Agricultural Implements and Machines in the Collection of the National Museum of History and Technology Smithsonian Studies in History and Technology, No. 17 by John T. Schlebecker
These pieces are fitted neatly to the proper size and dowelled firmly together.
From Mission Furniture How to Make It, Part I by H. H. (Henry Haven) Windsor
A. Brackets of large truck-carriages are made each of two pieces, joined by a jog a, and dowelled.
From Ordnance Instructions for the United States Navy. 1866. Fourth edition. by United States. Navy Dept. Bureau of Ordnance
In this case the bottom is raised from the floor, and may be dadoed into the bottom rails, or dowelled into them or even supported by strips attached along their lower inside edges.
From Handwork in Wood by William Noyes
The tools used in dowelling are: Brace, countersink, dowel-rounder, twist bit, try-square, marking-awl, and the usual bench tools.
From Woodwork Joints How they are Set Out, How Made and Where Used. by William Fairham
At present, mortising and dowelling have come to the front as proper processes, especially for table-building; and this time the style appears under the name of "Mission furniture."
From Principles of Home Decoration With Practical Examples by Candace Wheeler
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
