bowl over

verb

bowled over; bowling over; bowls over

transitive verb

1

: to take unawares

2

: impress entry 1 sense 1

Synonyms

• amaze
• astonish
• astound
• dumbfound
• dumfound
• flabbergast
• floor
• rock
• shock
• startle
• stun
• stupefy
• surprise
• surprize
• thunderstrike

Examples of bowl over in a Sentence

she was bowled over to learn that she had a long-lost sister

Recent Examples on the Web

The episodes air weekly on Wednesday and this week's instalment has Kelce bowled over to learn about Sylvester Stallone's admiration for him. —Yaakov Katz, Newsweek, 13 Jan. 2025

Kieran Culkin draws the camera in as Benji, an unpredictable, confrontational and yet tragically empathetic man who has been bowled over by grief. —Maya Phillips, New York Times, 29 Dec. 2024

Spread vegetables onto the hot sheet: Once the oven has preheated, carefully spread vegetables evenly over hot baking sheet, using a rubber spatula and scraping remaining olive oil and seasonings from bowl over vegetables. —Marianne Williams, Southern Living, 21 Nov. 2024

But there was one famous A-lister who wasn't necessarily bowled over by her charms: Oscar winner Morgan Freeman. —Jeremy Helligar, People.com, 20 Oct. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1867, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

bowl over

verb

1

: to hit and knock down while quickly moving past

2

: to greatly surprise or impress