Bower

Bow"er, v. t. To embower; to inclose. Shak.

Bow"er, n. [OE. bour, bur, room, dwelling, AS. būr, fr. the root of AS. būan to dwell; akin to Icel. būr chamber, storehouse, Sw. būr cage, Dan. buur, OHG. pūr room, G. bauer cage, bauer a peasant. √97] Cf.Boor, Byre.]

1. Anciently, a chamber; a lodging room; esp., a lady's private apartment.

Give me my lute in bed now as I lie,
And lock the doors of mine unlucky bower.
Gascoigne.

2. A rustic cottage or abode; poetically, an attractive abode or retreat. Shenstone. B. Johnson.

3. A shelter or covered place in a garden, made with boughs of trees or vines, etc., twined together; an arbor; a shady recess.

Bow"er, v. i. To lodge. [Obs.] Spenser.

Bow"er, n. [From Bough, cf. Brancher.] (Falconry) A young hawk, when it begins to leave the nest. [Obs.]

Bow"er (bou"ẽr), n. [G. bauer a peasant. So called from the figure sometimes used for the knave in cards. See Boor.] One of the two highest cards in the pack commonly used in the game of euchre.

Right bower, the knave of the trump suit, the highest card (except the "Joker") in the game. -- Left bower, the knave of the other suit of the same color as the trump, being the next to the right bower in value. -- Best bower or Joker, in some forms of euchre and some other games, an extra card sometimes added to the pack, which takes precedence of all others as the highest card.

Bo"wer (?), n. [From Bow, v. & n.]

1. One who bows or bends.

2. (Naut.) An anchor carried at the bow of a ship.

3. A muscle that bends a limb, esp. the arm. [Obs.]

His rawbone arms, whose mighty brawned bowers
Were wont to rive steel plates and helmets hew.

Spenser.

Best bower, Small bower. See the Note under Anchor.