to astonish or
surprise greatly; to
overwhelm. This
term originated in the mid-1800s in the
game of
cricket where a bowler bowls the
ball and tries to
knock the bails off the wicket behind the batsman, so as to get the batsman out of the
game. The bails are little four-inch
bars that rest on top of the wicket, a framework consisting of three stumps with grooves in the top, that are
stuck into the
ground. Literally to bowl over means to succeed in
knocking all the bails off; figuratively, it means to
knock over as if with a bowled
ball.