To bowl over
“To bowl over” is a phrasal verb with two main meanings.
The first meaning of “to bowl over” is to knock someone or something to the ground.
Examples:
- Because she wasn’t looking where she was going, she bumped into her brother and bowled him over.
- When he was dusting the ornament, he was a bit careless and bowled it over.
- I was bowled over by the cyclist.
You can see that when someone is bowled over, they might be very surprised. That leads us the second meaning of “to bowl over”: to astonish or to impress.
Examples:
- The first time I saw him I was bowled over by his good looks.
- He was absolutely bowled over by the concert.
- Lionel Messi always bowls people over by how well he plays.
