bower

Pluralbowers

Formsbowers, bowering, bowered

1. 1
   leafy shelternouncountable

   A shady, leafy shelter or nook in a garden or in the woods.

   Climbing roses had grown over the old arbor, turning that corner of the garden into a fragrant bower.

   The hikers rested in a leafy bower where the willows bent low over the stream.

   Similararbor, nook

   Note

   Here the room has leaves for walls. A bower can be grown on purpose, like the "pleached bower" in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, where interwoven branches and honeysuckle shut out the sun, or simply found wherever boughs meet overhead. Leafy is the adjective writers reach for, as in J.G. Ballard's leafy bowers springing up in a shopping mall. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

   • A bower can be deliberately grown by weaving living branches together. pulterproject.northwestern.edu
   • Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing contains the phrase “pleached bower” and describes honeysuckles excluding sunlight; Hero speaks these lines. shakespeare.mit.edu
   • Ballard describes leafy bowers springing up inside a shopping mall, in The Unlimited Dream Company, chapter 30. en.wiktionary.org
2. 2
   bird courtshipnouncountable

   A large structure of grass, twigs, and similar material, decorated with bright objects and used by a male bowerbird in courtship displays.

   The male spent weeks decorating his bower with blue bottle caps, berries, and feathers.

   Females visit several bowers before choosing a mate.

   Note

   It is a stage for courtship, not a nest: the male builds and decorates it and displays there to visiting females, who raise their young in a nest elsewhere. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • The bower serves courtship rather than nesting; the female leaves it to undertake nesting elsewhere. australian.museum
   • The male builds and decorates the bower and displays to visiting females. environment.nsw.gov.au
   • Females raise their young in a separate nest. en.wikipedia.org
3. 3
   castle bedroomnouncountable

   A bedroom or a set of private rooms, especially a woman's in a medieval castle.

   The countess withdrew to her bower in the east tower and barred the door.

   Visitors to the castle can climb the stairs to the lady's bower, a small room with a window over the moat.

   Similarchamber, boudoir

   Note

   The meaning nearest the word's roots: Old English būr meant a room or abode, and this sense keeps that idea of a private room, above all a woman's. In a George Gascoigne poem a wronged lady asks for her lute in bed and the doors of "mine unlucky bower" locked. The leafy garden shelter and the cottage retreat carry the same idea of a small, sheltered place. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 6 facts

   • Bower descends from Old English būr. en.wiktionary.org
   • Old English būr meant a room. en.wiktionary.org
   • The bedroom sense retains the meaning of private rooms, especially a woman's. en.wiktionary.org
   • George Gascoigne wrote the poem described. en.wiktionary.org
   • The speaker is a wronged lady. kellscraft.com
   • She asks for her lute while in bed and for the doors of her bower to be locked; the quotation is accurate. kellscraft.com
4. 4
   country cottagenounliterarycountable

   A home, particularly a picturesque cottage in the countryside to which someone retreats.

   She retired to a rose-covered bower in the hills and lived there quietly for the rest of her life.

   Each summer the poet left the city for his country bower, where he wrote, slept late, and received a few close friends.

   Similarretreat, cottage, hideaway

   Note

   This is a poet's word, not a realtor's: used of a real cottage, it gives the place a storybook air, where plain prose would say cottage or retreat. Keats stretches it furthest in Endymion (1818), where a thing of beauty "will keep / A bower quiet for us", a refuge for the mind rather than a building. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

   • John Keats wrote Endymion, first published in 1818. gutenberg.org
   • The poem's narrator says that a thing of beauty will keep a quiet bower for us; the quoted wording is accurate. gutenberg.org
   • The passage supports reading the bower figuratively as mental refuge. gutenberg.org
5. 5
   ship's anchornouncountable

   A type of anchor carried at a ship's bow.

   The crew let go the starboard bower as the ship swung into the wind.

   Both bowers were hauled up and secured before the ship left the harbor.

   Note

   A ship carries these anchors in pairs, one on each side of the bow, so the crew speaks of the port bower and the starboard bower. Older sailing ships also called the starboard anchor the best bower and the port one the small bower, and kept a spare sheet anchor in reserve for emergencies. Both pairs of names mark the side, not a difference in size.

6. 6
   card gamenouncountable

   Either of the two highest trumps in euchre and five hundred when the joker is left out of the game.

   She led the right bower and took the trick, then followed with the left.

   With both bowers in his hand, he was sure his team would take the round.

   Note

   Euchre players borrowed this word from German Bauer, "farmer", so it shares an old Germanic root meaning "dweller" with the word for a peasant. The two bowers are told apart as right and left, and both were worth hiding: in Bret Harte's Plain Language from Truthful James (1870), a cheating player's sleeve is "stuffed full of aces and bowers". Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 7 facts

   • The card-game word bower was borrowed from German Bauer. en.wiktionary.org
   • German Bauer means farmer. en.wiktionary.org
   • The card-game and peasant senses share a Germanic ancestor meaning dweller. en.wiktionary.org
   • The two bowers are distinguished as right and left. en.wikipedia.org
   • Bret Harte wrote Plain Language from Truthful James. en.wikipedia.org
   • The poem was first published in 1870. en.wikisource.org
   • The poem's narrator describes a cheating player's sleeve using the exact words stuffed full of aces and bowers. en.wikisource.org
7. 7
   verbtransitive

   To enclose or shelter something, often among trees or greenery.

   At the end of the lane sat a small stone house, bowered in old apple trees and wild roses.

   The chapel stood bowered in climbing roses at the edge of the village.

   UsageUsually passive with in: a cottage bowered in roses.

   Similarenclose, shelter, shade, surround

   Note

   The verb turns the leafy shelter into an action. Shakespeare bends it inward: Juliet, learning what Romeo has done, asks why nature should bower "the spirit of a fiend / In mortal paradise of such sweet flesh", housing something dark inside something lovely. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • Shakespeare wrote the play containing this passage, Romeo and Juliet. internetshakespeare.uvic.ca
   • Juliet speaks after learning that Romeo killed Tybalt. folger.edu
   • Juliet addresses nature, and the quoted words are exact; the passage contrasts Romeo's supposed evil spirit with his beautiful body. en.wikisource.org

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