Bower

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /baÊŠ.əɹ/, /baʊəɹ/
• Rhymes: -aÊŠ.É™(ɹ), -aÊŠÉ™(ɹ)

From Old English būr, from Proto-Germanic *būraz. Cognate with German Bauer ("birdcage"), Old Norse búr (Danish bur, Swedish bur ("cage")).

Full definition of bower

Noun

1. A bedroom or private apartments, especially for a woman in a medieval castle.
• GascoigneGive me my lute in bed now as I lie,
  And lock the doors of mine unlucky bower.
2. (literary) A dwelling; a picturesque country cottage, especially one that is used as a retreat.
3. A shady, leafy shelter or recess in a garden or woods.
• 1599, William Shakespeare, ,...say that thou overheard'st us,And bid her steal into the pleached bower,Where honey-suckles, ripen'd by the sun,Forbid the sun to enter;...
• 1907, w, The Dust of Conflict Chapter 1, ...belts of thin white mist streaked the brown plough land in the hollow where Appleby could see the pale shine of a winding river. Across that in turn, meadow and coppice rolled away past the white walls of a village bowered in orchards,...
4. (ornithology) A large structure made of grass and bright objects, used by the bower bird during courtship displays.

Synonyms

• boudoir

Verb

1. To embower; to enclose.
2. (obsolete) To lodge.

From Middle English boueer, from Old English būr, ġebūr ("freeholder of the lowest class, peasant, farmer") and Middle Dutch bouwer ("farmer, builder, peasant"); both from Proto-Germanic *būraz ("dweller"), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰōw- ("to dwell"). Cognate with German Bauer ("peasant, builder"), Dutch boer, buur, and Albanian burrë ("man, husband"). See boor, neighbor.

Noun

1. A peasant; a farmer.

From German Bauer.

Noun

1. Either of the two highest trumps in euchre.

Derived terms

• best bower
• left bower
• right bower

From the bow of a ship

Noun

1. (nautical) A type of ship's anchor, carried at the bow.
2. One who bows or bends.
3. A muscle that bends a limb, especially the arm.
• SpenserHis rawbone arms, whose mighty brawned bowers
  Were wont to rive steel plates and helmets hew.

From bough, compare brancher.

Noun

1. (obsolete, falconry) A young hawk, when it begins to leave the nest.