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gowl

GOWL, rhymes with owlnounVulgarMunster

A Hiberno-English slang term. Browse all Irish slang.

What it means

  1. A contemptible fool. Strong, and strongest in Limerick and the mid-west, where it is a standard insult between men.

  2. The vulva. The underlying sense, which is why the insult is coarser than its casual delivery suggests.

In use

  • Would you look at that gowl.

  • He made a gowl of himself at the wedding.

Where it comes from

From the Irish 'gabhal', a fork or crotch, the same word used anatomically. The insult is a direct carry-over of an Irish word rather than an English one reshaped, which is typical of the strongest Munster vocabulary.