bowl

To present someone with a question, situation, or piece of information that is surprising or unexpected. Taken from cricket, in which a "googly" is a ball thrown counter to that which the batsman expects. Primarily heard in UK. Dave really bowled me a googly when he asked if I'd like to go on a date with him. The manager bowled us a googly by announcing we'd have this Friday off.

A place, situation, or environment in which one has little or no privacy. A reference to the (typically) spherical bowls in which pet fish are often kept, which can be seen into from all sides. One of the prices of success for a pop star is having to live in a goldfish bowl under the scrutiny of the public eye. I feel like I'm in a goldfish bowl working at this new company, with all their security cameras posted everywhere.

To exchange something of great, important, or fundamental value for some financial gain that proves to be of little, trivial, or no value but which appears to be attractive or valuable on first reckoning. (A variant of "sell one's birthright for a mess of pottage," an allusion to Esau in Genesis 25:29–32, who sells to Jacob his birthright to his family's estate for a bowl of lentil stew (pottage).) If we allow our obsession with job creation to undermine the health of the environment, humanity will ultimately end up selling its birthright for a bowl of soup.

dated A bowl or other receptacle into which the dregs and leftovers of tea or coffee are collected from drinkers' cups (i.e., so that they may be refilled with a fresh drink). Tabitha, will you please come take the slop bowl away and empty it? It's becoming conspicuously full.

vulgar slang Something or someone that spoils, ruins, or needlessly complicates a situation or circumstance; a disagreeable nuisance or source of irritation. For these greedy corporate executives, restrictions put in place by regulators to protect consumers are just turds in the punchbowl. Not to be the turd in the punchbowl, but I really think we should take this money we found to the police, instead of keeping it for ourselves.

Wonderful; very pleasant. Typically used in the metaphoric expression, "life is (not) just a bowl of cherries." I got a promotion and got engaged in the span of a week! Life is just a bowl of cherries these days!

slang To defecate. It is a pun in which "Super Bowl" refers to a toilet, and "the Browns" refers to the Cleveland Browns football team (chosen because feces are brown). Hang on, I've got to take the Browns to the Super Bowl before we leave the house.

A TV program that airs on Animal Planet on the afternoon of Super Bowl Sunday. Puppies play on a mock football field, and kittens take the field for the "Kitten Halftime Show." The animals shown are usually available for adoption. Who cares about the Super Bowl—when is Puppy Bowl on?

to fill a pipe bowl with smokable material. The detective bowled up and struck a match. Roger bowled up, but forgot to light his pipe.

Prov. Everything is going well.; Life is carefree. (Often used ironically, as in the second example.) The real estate salesman tried to convince us that life in the suburbs is just a bowl of cherries. Jill: Hi, Jane. How are you? Jane: Oh, my alarm clock didn't go off this morning, and then my car wouldn't start, and I missed the bus and got to work late, and I just found out my rent's going up fifty dollars a month. Life is just a bowl of cherries.

something that you say which means that life is very pleasant The hotel is wonderful and the weather too. Life's just a bowl of cherries. So as well as cleaning up the apartment and getting the paperwork done, I have three children to look after. Yes, life's just a bowl of cherries!

These are happy circumstances; life is wonderful. This phrase is often used ironically, as in My husband is about to get laid off-life is just a bowl of cherries, right? Originating as the title of a song (1931) by Lew Brown (lyrics) and composer Ray Henderson, this term expressed the idea that everything was going very well. However, its ironical use was established by the 1970s. Also see bed of roses.

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]

A situation affording no privacy, as in Being in a goldfish bowl comes with the senator's job-there's no avoiding it. The glass bowl allowing one to view goldfish from every direction was transferred first, in the 1920s, to a police interrogation room equipped with a one-way mirror. By the mid-1900s the expression was being used more broadly.