Bowling is the indoor game of rolling a heavy ball down a lane to knock down ten pins. Go bowling, a bowling alley, a bowling ball.
Ten-pin bowling is the full name of the common form, and a strike is knocking all ten down with the first ball, a spare with the second. A perfect game is three hundred. Britain also has lawn bowls and crown green bowls, played outdoors on grass with biased balls, which are quite different games. In cricket, bowling is delivering the ball to the batsman, and a bowler is the player who does it.
1nounbowlingThe indoor game of rolling a ball to knock down ten pins.
“The bowling alley has been there since about 1974.”
2nounactThe act of delivering the ball in cricket.
“Their bowling was better than their batting all season.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
bowling is a game or sporting action.