kegel - Wiktionary, the free dictionary


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After Arnold Kegel. The surname is of German origin; see Kegel (“skittle, bowling pin”).

kegel (plural kegels)

  1. The pubococcygeal muscles.

    • 1999 July 19, Hendrik Hertzberg, “The Parent Trap”, in The New Yorker:

      The parenting magazines are on a higher moral plane than the how-to-get-a-guy magazines, just as a man going home to his wife and children (or a woman breast-feeding a baby) is on a higher moral plane than a man out trolling for nookie (or a woman flexing her Kegels in preparation for a date).

  2. A contraction of the pubococcygeal muscles, performed for the purpose of strengthening them.

    • 2014 July 14, Roni Caryn Rabin, “Pelvic Exercises for Men, Too”, in The New York Times:

      Done for a few minutes a day, Kegels can ease childbirth, help with recovery, prevent incontinence — even improve your sex life.

kegel (third-person singular simple present kegels, present participle kegeling, simple past and past participle kegeled)

  1. (intransitive) To clench one's perineum and pelvic muscles.

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

      To future appointments, I wear a skirt and thigh-highs so that I can Kegel with my outfit intact.

From Middle Dutch kēgel, from Old Dutch *kegil, from Proto-West Germanic *kagil.

kegel m (plural kegels, diminutive kegeltje n)

  1. cone
  2. bowling pin
  3. (usually in the diminutive) cone cell (in the retina)

From Old Dutch *kegil, from Proto-West Germanic *kagil.

kēgel or kêgel? m

  1. cone, wedge
  2. bowling pin

This noun needs an inflection-table template.