What does "bower" mean?
A bedroom or private apartments, especially for a woman in a medieval castle.
Bower
/ˈbaʊə(ɹ)/ name, noun, verb
name, noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: A bedroom or private apartments, especially for a woman in a medieval castle.
- Grammar: bower is listed as name, noun, verb.
- Nearest alternatives: arbor, arbour, boudoir, ace.
- Useful contrasts: common room, expose, open.
- Usage evidence: He that hears much and speaks not at all shall be welcome both in bower and hall.
How to use "bower"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "bower" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "bower" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "bower" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "bower" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "bower" is acting as name, noun, verb in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "arbor" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
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Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "bower", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A bedroom or private apartments, especially for a woman in a medieval castle.
"Give me my lute in bed now as I lie, / And lock the doors of mine unlucky bower."
- 2 A peasant; a farmer.
- 3 Either of the two highest trumps in the card games euchre and five hundred (where the joker is omitted).
"Yet the cards they were stocked / In a way that I grieve, / And my feelings were shocked / At the state of Nye's sleeve, / Which was stuffed full of aces and bowers, / And the same with intent to deceive."
- 4 A type of ship's anchor, carried at the bow.
- 5 One who bows or bends.
"The bower aims his display straight at the dominant figure, who may reciprocate with a milder version of the same action."
Show 7 more definitions
- 6 One who plays any of several bow instruments, such as the musical bow or diddley bow.
- 7 A young hawk, when it begins to leave the nest.
- 8 a framework that supports climbing plants wordnet
- 9 A dwelling; a picturesque country cottage, especially one that is used as a retreat. literary
"While friends arrived in circles gay, To visit Damon's bower"
- 10 A muscle that bends a limb, especially the arm.
"His rawbone armes, whose mighty brawned bowrs / Were wont to riue steele plates, and helmets hew"
- 11 A shady, leafy shelter or recess in a garden or woods.
"[…]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;[…]"
- 12 A large structure made of grass, twigs, etc., and decorated with bright objects, used by male bower birds during courtship displays.
Verb
- 1 To embower; to enclose.
"O nature, what hadst thou to do in hell / When thou didst bower the spirit of a fiend / In mortal paradise of such sweet flesh?"
- 2 enclose in a bower wordnet
- 3 To lodge. obsolete
"Flora now calleth forth each flower, And bids make readie Maias bower"
Proper Noun
- 1 A surname.
"Snowdon climbed to the top floor of the house opposite George's in Pimlico to observe the artist in one window and his model, the painter Natalie Bower, in the adjacent."
Example
"He that hears much and speaks not at all shall be welcome both in bower and hall."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "bower"?
Common synonyms include: arbor, arbour, boudoir, ace, alcove, anchor.
How do you use "bower" in a sentence?
He that hears much and speaks not at all shall be welcome both in bower and hall.
How do you pronounce "bower"?
Pronounced /ˈbaʊə(ɹ)/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
From Middle English bour, from Old English būr, from Proto-West Germanic *būr, from Proto-Germanic *būrą (“room, abode”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Búur (“storage room, utility room; cage”), German Bauer (“birdcage”), Old Norse búr (“cage”) (Danish bur, Norwegian Bokmål bur, Swedish bur).
Etymology 2
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-West Germanic *būr, from Proto-Germanic *būraz (“dweller”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰōw- (“to dwell”). Cognate with German Bauer (“peasant, farmer”), Dutch boer, buur, and Albanian burrë (“man, husband”). Doublet of bauer, Boer, and boor. More at neighbour.
Etymology 3
From German Bauer. A doublet of etymology 2 and of the German-origin surname Bauer.
Etymology 4
From the bow of a ship + -er.
Etymology 5
From bow (verb) + -er.
Etymology 6
From bow (noun) + -er.
Etymology 7
From bough + -er, compare brancher.