bowling over

present participle of bowl over

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for bowling over
Verb
  • In one camp Gao Sheng breaks a cultural norm by helping her father and uncles with a big project, amazing her relatives with her physical and mental strength.
    Mary Ann Grossmann, Twin Cities, 18 Jan. 2026
Verb
  • Footage of the fight shared online showed Williams punching Colón in the back of the head in the seventh round, apparently stunning him.
    Charlotte Reck, CNN Money, 14 Aug. 2026
  • Margaret deploys this power to find Daniel and to free him from Noah and the WARDEX minions—essentially, by stunning them emotionally.
    Richard Brody, New Yorker, 16 June 2026
Verb
  • What went down Dickens shared a video of himself surprising the Nature Gurlz, a beloved group of women who meet up weekday mornings to bask in the great outdoors.
    AJ Willingham, AJC.com, 20 Aug. 2026
  • All that hard work turned into front-row seats, with Blanca surprising her daughter with help from a local boutique.
    Lesley Marin, CBS News, 19 Aug. 2026
Verb
  • In 1988, 27-year-old Japanese American graphic artist Karen Toshima was killed by a stray bullet during a gang confrontation on Broxton Avenue, shocking Angelenos who had treated gun violence as a problem largely confined to poor parts of the city.
    Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 28 Aug. 2026
  • On Monday June 29, a bomb exploded on the doorstep of Yermolaiev’s luxury apartment in Monaco, gravely injuring the Ukrainian millionaire and shocking residents of the wealthy city state.
    Ivana Kottasová, CNN Money, 20 Aug. 2026
Verb
  • The unpredictable motion scares them off, startling them and throwing them off balance.
    Molly Burford, Southern Living, 1 Sep. 2026
  • Last week, an F/A-18 Super Hornet from the Blue Angels, the Navy’s flight-demonstration team, zoomed dangerously low along the Florida coast, stirring up sand and umbrellas, startling some beachgoers—and, it must be said, delighting many others.
    Missy Ryan, The Atlantic, 22 July 2026
Verb
  • Booming demand Anthropic’s growth has been astonishing even by Silicon Valley standards.
    The Week UK, TheWeek, 23 Aug. 2026
  • Nordstrom has really sweet jewelry pieces at not-astonishing price points.
    Gina Vaynshteyn, StyleCaster, 29 Apr. 2026
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Cite this Entry

“Bowling over.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/bowling%20over. Accessed 2 Sep. 2026.

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