Obs. exc. dial. In 1 cawel, (couel, ceawl), 6–9 cawell, (9 cowel(l, -all), 1–9 cawl. [OE. cawl, ceawl, basket.] A basket; in modern Cornish dialect, a fish-basket or creel.
a. 700. Epinal Gloss., 305. Corvis (corbis), couel.
a. 800. Corpus Gloss., 513. Corbus (-is), cauuel.
c. 893. K. Ælfred, Oros., IV. viii. § 4. Þæt folc … heora cawlas afylled hæfdon.
c. 950. Lindisf. Gosp., Matt. xiv. 20. Tuoelf ceawlas ðæra screadunga fullo [Mark vi. 43 ceaulas].
c. 1050. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 365. Coruis, cawel.
1568. Wills & Inv. N. C. (1835), 285. One almerye and a cawell wth a cownter [Here the meaning is doubtful].
1865. Esquiros, Cornwall, 136. Women, with bent backs, loaded with a dorser called a cowel … bear the enormous loads of fish from the boats to the beach.
1880. Miss Courtney, W. Cornw. Gloss. (E. D. S.), Cowall, Cawell, a basket to hold fish, carried by the fish-wives.
1883. Fisheries Exhib. Catal., 293. A Lamprey Cawl. A Lamprey Basket.
