boule

• IPA^(key): /buːl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːl

From French boule. Doublet of bull (etymologies 2 and 4) and bulla, or of bowl and pulla, depending on the etymology of the French word.

boule (plural boules)

1. One of the bowls used in the French game of boules.
   • 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty […], London: Picador, →ISBN:

     Wani had been wet about the game until he turned out to be good at it, and now he was absorbed and unironical, tripping after the ball, yapping and grinning when he bombed the other boules away from the jack-ball, or cochonnet.

2. A single-crystal ingot produced by synthetic means.
3. A round loaf of bread.
4. A round piece of dough.
5. (woodworking) A through-sawn log with the slices restacked in the order and orientation they originally had in the log, usually with waney edges.
   • 1986, Fine woodworking on wood and how to dry it, page 42:

     Behind him is lumber 'sawn in the boule.' Wood is more commonly sawn in this manner in Europe and is stacked in the order it comes from the log.

   • 1995 August, American Woodworker, number 46, page 41:

     Specialty lumber dealers can cut and sticker a log "in the boule," so that boards hold the same relative position they had before milling

   • 1991 August, American Woodworker, number 21, page 47:

     A live-sawn log kept as a unit is known as a boule

   • 2005, Andy Rae, Workshop Idea Book, page 94:

     IN THE BOULE. If you work with whole logs, allocate enough space for storing flitch-cut planks in the order they were sawn. Their sheer bulk helps keep them flat, and stacking in order makes sequential matching for color and grain much easier

boule (third-person singular simple present boules, present participle bouling, simple past and past participle bouled)

1. (transitive, cooking, rare, nonstandard) To shape (a piece of dough) into a ball.

Alteration of Boulle. See buhl.

boule (usually uncountable, plural boules)

1. (woodworking) Alternative form of buhl.

Borrowed from Ancient Greek βουλή (boulḗ).

boule (plural boules)

1. (historical) A council of citizens in Ancient Greece

• bouleuterion
• bouleutes

• Lobue

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• IPA^(key): [ˈbou̯lɛ]
• Rhymes: -oulɛ

boule f (diminutive bulka)

1. bulge, protuberance
2. bump, swelling

• “boule”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “boule”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
• “boule”, in Internetová jazyková příručka (in Czech), 2008–2025

• IPA^(key): /bul/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ul

Inherited from Middle French boule, from Old French bole (“knob”), from either Latin bulla (“bubble”), in which case it is a doublet of bulle (which was borrowed later); or from Frankish *bollā (“ball, bun, bowl, cup”), in which case it is a doublet of bol.

boule f (plural boules)

1. ball, globe
2. bowl (in the game of bowls)

   Il jette la boule. ― He throws the bowl.

3. scoop (for example, of ice cream)

   2 boules de glace. ― 2 scoops of ice cream

4. bauble
5. (informal) head or face
6. (France, slang) ball, testicle
7. (Quebec, slang) tit, breast

boule m (plural boules)

1. (slang) butt, bum, ass

   Cette meuf a un bon boule.

   This girl has a great ass.

boule

1. inflection of bouler:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

• “boule”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

From French brûler (“to burn”).

• IPA^(key): /buˈle/

boule

1. to burn

• n'ap boule

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• Audio:

  (file)

boule f (plural boules)

1. (Jersey, nautical) buoy

• boule d'sauvetage (“life belt”)

• IPA^(key): [ˈbo.ule]

boule m

1. vocative singular of bou