bowel movement

English

Noun

bowel movement (plural bowel movements)

2. The discharge of feces from the body, an act of defecation.

   Alternative form: BM (initialism)

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:defecation

   • 2022 October 2, Cara Schacter, “My Year of Stress and Constipation”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     Mid-March 2021, at a bowling alley, I watch balls thunder down lanes and wonder if I’ve had a bowel movement since Presidents’ Day.

4. The feces thus produced.

   Alternative form: BM (initialism)

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:feces

Usage notes

• A nonvulgar, relatively inoffensive term for this bodily function, acceptable for general use and medical use.

Related terms

• move one's bowels

Translations

discharge of feces

• Catalan: defecació f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 排便 (zh) (páibiàn)

• Czech: stolice (cs) f
• Dutch: stoelgang (nl) m, ontlasting (nl) f
• Finnish: ulostaminen (fi)
• French: défécation (fr) f
• German: Stuhlgang (de) m
• Hungarian: székelés (hu), székletürítés (hu)
• Italian: defecazione (it) f
• Polish: wypróżnienie (pl) n
• Portuguese: movimento intestinal m, evacuação (pt) f, defecação (pt) f
• Spanish: defecación (es) f
• Turkish: bağırsak hareketi

feces thus produced

• Catalan: deposició f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 糞便 / 粪便 (zh) (fènbiàn)

• Finnish: uloste (fi)
• French: fèces (fr) f pl
• Hungarian: széklet (hu)
• Italian: feci (it) f pl
• Polish: kał (pl) m, stolec (pl) m
• Portuguese: fezes (pt) f pl
• Spanish: heces (es) f pl