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:
“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)
“When men change swords for ledgers, and desert
The student’s bower for gold, some fears unnamed
I had, my Country—am I to be blamed?”
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850)