A smooth level lawn or green for playing bowls upon. (Hence a common simile ‘as level (or smooth) as a bowling-green.’)
1646. Evelyn, Mem. (1857), I. 227. The whole country flat and even as a bowling-green.
a. 1695. Wood, Life (1848), 267. Trained privately in New Coll. bouling-green.
1800. Mar. Edgeworth, Lottery, ii. Going to a bowling-green tea-party this evening.
1825. Waterton, Wand. S. Amer., I. i. 120. An immense plain … ils level as a bowling-green.
