bowler1

[boh-ler] /ˈboʊ lər/
noun
1.
a person who bowls, especially a participant in a bowling game, as candlepins or tenpins.
2.
Cricket. the player who throws the ball to be played by the batsman.
Origin
1490-1500; bowl2 + -er1

bowler2

[boh-ler] /ˈboʊ lər/
noun, Chiefly British
1.
derby (def 5).
Origin
1860-65; bowl1 + -er1
Examples from the web for bowler
  • He doesn't leave a derby hat in the hall, but a bowler.
  • Often a coach would stand at our side, holding the bowler's wrist, guiding the swing.
  • Get a purple plastic bowler with pink feathers, or don a shiny green cardboard top hat.
  • He is also perhaps the best bowler of any nation in the game's history.
  • He ducked his head and avoided the eye of the grimacing bowler.
British Dictionary definitions for bowler

bowler1

/ˈbəʊlə/
noun
1.
one who bowls in cricket
2.
a player at the game of bowls

bowler2

/ˈbəʊlə/
noun
1.
a stiff felt hat with a rounded crown and narrow curved brim US and Canadian name derby
Word Origin
C19: named after John Bowler, 19th-century London hatter

bowler3

/ˈbaʊlə/
noun
1.
(Dublin, dialect) a dog
Word Origin
perhaps from b(ow-wow) + (h)owler
Word Origin and History for bowler
n.

"hard round hat," 1861, said to be from a J. Bowler, 19c. London hat manufacturer. A John Bowler of Surrey, hat manufacturer, was active from the 1820s to the 1840s, and a William Bowler, hat-manufacturer, of Southwark Bridge Road, Surrey, sought a patent in 1854 for "improvements in hats and other coverings for the head." But perhaps the word is simply from bowl (n.); cf. Old English heafodbolla "brainpan, skull." The earliest usages are with a lower-case b-.

"player at bowls," c.1500.