The table caught them like a pair of tenpins and knocked them into the corner.
"The Electronic Mind Reader"
John Blaine
They're almost as big as the giant redwoods of California, and yet they were bowled over as if they were tenpins."
"Tom Swift in the Land of Wonders or, The Underground Search for the Idol of Gold"
Victor Appleton
One stalwart youth showed such a spirit of opposition that we were obliged to eject him upon a crowded stairway, causing the mob to go down like a row of tenpins.
"Across Asia on a Bicycle"
Thomas Gaskell Allen and William Lewis Sachtleben