To present someone with a question, situation, or piece of information that is surprising or unexpected. Taken from cricket, in which a "googly" is a ball thrown counter to that which the batsman expects. Primarily heard in UK. Dave really bowled me a googly when he asked if I'd like to go on a date with him. The manager bowled us a googly by announcing we'd have this Friday off.

A place, situation, or environment in which one has little or no privacy. A reference to the (typically) spherical bowls in which pet fish are often kept, which can be seen into from all sides. One of the prices of success for a pop star is having to live in a goldfish bowl under the scrutiny of the public eye. I feel like I'm in a goldfish bowl working at this new company, with all their security cameras posted everywhere.

To exchange something of great, important, or fundamental value for some financial gain that proves to be of little, trivial, or no value but which appears to be attractive or valuable on first reckoning. (A variant of "sell one's birthright for a mess of pottage," an allusion to Esau in Genesis 25:29–32, who sells to Jacob his birthright to his family's estate for a bowl of lentil stew (pottage).) If we allow our obsession with job creation to undermine the health of the environment, humanity will ultimately end up selling its birthright for a bowl of soup.

dated A bowl or other receptacle into which the dregs and leftovers of tea or coffee are collected from drinkers' cups (i.e., so that they may be refilled with a fresh drink). Tabitha, will you please come take the slop bowl away and empty it? It's becoming conspicuously full.

vulgar slang Something or someone that spoils, ruins, or needlessly complicates a situation or circumstance; a disagreeable nuisance or source of irritation. For these greedy corporate executives, restrictions put in place by regulators to protect consumers are just turds in the punchbowl. Not to be the turd in the punchbowl, but I really think we should take this money we found to the police, instead of keeping it for ourselves.

Wonderful; very pleasant. Typically used in the metaphoric expression, "life is (not) just a bowl of cherries." I got a promotion and got engaged in the span of a week! Life is just a bowl of cherries these days!

slang To defecate. It is a pun in which "Super Bowl" refers to a toilet, and "the Browns" refers to the Cleveland Browns football team (chosen because feces are brown). Hang on, I've got to take the Browns to the Super Bowl before we leave the house.

A TV program that airs on Animal Planet on the afternoon of Super Bowl Sunday. Puppies play on a mock football field, and kittens take the field for the "Kitten Halftime Show." The animals shown are usually available for adoption. Who cares about the Super Bowl—when is Puppy Bowl on?

To add a substance that can be smoked to the bowl of a pipe. I just carry this pipe to evoke the air of Sherlock Holmes—I never actually bowl up.

Life is wonderful or very pleasant. I got a promotion and got engaged in the span of a week! Life is just a bowl of cherries these days!

slang A pipe with an exceptionally large bowl used to smoke a large amount of marijuana in a single sitting, as might be used to accommodate a large number of people (at a party). Tom whipped out a party bowl and started packing it with enough weed to get the whole room stoned.