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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.
Examples of bower in a Sentence
Shawn Simpson, The Conversation, 19 Mar. 2025
Like the bowers, the nests of the puffer fish are beautiful and involve mate attraction.
—Shawn Simpson, The Conversation, 19 Mar. 2025
Adam—great in the bower, but a bit of a bore—speaks in paeans, but the snake speaks boldly, sensuously.
—Merve Emre, The New Yorker, 16 Dec. 2024
Come summer, the walled garden is a joyful place with its historic Kentish bower and formal planting, featuring fragrant roses, peonies and irises to replica a typical English garden.
—Angelina Villa-Clarke, Forbes, 12 Dec. 2024
The highest-ranking card of the original suit played wins the trick unless a card from the trump suit (including the left bower) is played, which would outrank any other card.
—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
Mayer Rus, Architectural Digest, 5 Dec. 2024
Cite this Entry
“Bower.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bower. Accessed 5 Jul. 2025.
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