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If you visited someone’s bower a millennium ago, you’d likely have found yourself at an attractive rustic cottage. A few centuries later, a visit to a bower could have involved a peek into a lady’s personal hideaway within a medieval castle or hall—that is, her private apartment. Both meanings hark back to the word’s ancient roots: it comes from Old English būr, meaning “dwelling.” Today, bower is more familiar as a word for a garden shelter made with tree boughs or vines twined together, a meaning that overlaps with that of arbor. (The adjective bowery, meaning “like a bower” or “full of bowers” is used to describe areas that resemble or are filled with these leafy pergola-like structures). Bower also features in the name of bowerbirds, any of approximately 20 different bird species native to Australia, New Guinea, and nearby islands, the males of which build more-or-less elaborate structures using twigs, moss, and other plant materials to woo potential mates during courtship.
Synonyms
Examples of bower in a Sentence
Stephen J. Beard, USA TODAY, 17 Aug. 2023
Throughout the day Saturday and Sunday there will be live performances in each bower of the audio collaborations.
—Brittanie Shey, Chron, 14 Apr. 2023
This elegant crisscross trellis can be used in the most formal of outdoor spaces to support climbing foliage like pink bower vines.
—Jill Gleeson, Country Living, 31 Mar. 2023
The shot started an image-making trend that extended through Cindy Crawford, Britney Spears, Ciara and Gigi Hadid, though all of them were topped by Beyoncé’s 2017 pregnant-while-wearing-lingerie-in-a-bower baby-bump photo shoot.
—New York Times, 31 Jan. 2022
But with the events of this past year—not least a parental uprising against the wokish material taught in Virginia’s public schools—even outsiders are aware that children’s literature has become as much a battlefield as a bower.
—Meghan Cox Gurdon, WSJ, 17 Dec. 2021
Today, a cafe occupies part of the ground floor, its tables and chairs distributed under a leafy bower on the veranda.
—New York Times, 9 June 2022
People not involved in the world of children’s books, either professionally or personally through children and grandchildren, may imagine a peaceful bower where bunnies hop and pixies flit and tots run back and forth making wonderful discoveries.
—Meghan Cox Gurdon, WSJ, 17 Dec. 2021
The male organizes rocks, shells, and other objects from small to large outside of the bower.
—Mary Bates, National Geographic, 24 Nov. 2020
Mayer Rus, Architectural Digest, 5 Dec. 2024
Dictionary Entries Near bower
Cite this Entry
“Bower.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bower. Accessed 24 Dec. 2024.
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