Bower may refer to:
- a folly built by the Bowerbird to attract mates
- a dwelling or lean-to shelter, also known as an arbor
- an anchor carried at the bow of a ship
- Bower Manuscript, a Sanskrit manuscript
- Bower–Barff process, in metallurgy, a method of coating iron or steel with magnetic iron oxide
- Julian's Bower, various turf mazes in several different parts of England
- 1639 Bower, a namesake of the Bower family of asteroids
Bower may also be:
- An altered spelling of the German family name Bauer
- The right bower and left bower (or bauer), the two highest-ranking cards in the game of euchre
- A woman's bedroom or private apartments, especially in a medieval castle – cf. Boudoir
Famous quotes containing the word bower:
“Quoth she, “I have loved thee, Little Musgrave,
Full long and many a day;”
“So have I loved you, faire lady,
Yet never a word durst I say.”
“I have a bower at Bucklesfordbery,
Full daintyly it is deight;
If thou wilt wend thither, thou Little Musgrave,
Thou’s lig in mine armes all night.””
—Unknown. Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard (l. 17–24)
“Happy is the house that shelters a friend! It might well be built, like a festal bower or arch, to entertain him a single day. Happier, if he know the solemnity of that relation, and honor its law! He offers himself a candidate for that covenant comes up, like an Olympian, to the great games, where the first- born of the world are the competitors.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Adam and Eve, according to the fable, wore the bower before other clothes. Man wanted a home, a place of warmth, or comfort, first of physical warmth, then the warmth of the affections.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)