Chapter Bournless to Bowl of B by Webster's Dictionary (1913 Edition)

Best bower

, Small bower. See the Note under Anchor.

Bower
(Bow"er) 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 boweror 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.

Bower
(Bow"er), n. [OE. bour, bur, room, dwelling, AS. bur, fr. the root of AS. buan to dwell; akin to Icel. bur chamber, storehouse, Sw. bur cage, Dan. buur, OHG. pur room, G. bauer cage, bauer a peasant. &radic97] 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.

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

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

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

Bower bird
(Bow"er bird`) (Zoöl.) An Australian bird allied to the starling, which constructs singular bowers or playhouses of twigs and decorates them with bright-colored objects; the satin bird.

The name is also applied to other related birds of the same region, having similar habits; as, the spotted bower bird and the regent bird (Sericulus melinus).

Bowery
(Bow"er*y) a. Shading, like a bower; full of bowers.

A bowery maze that shades the purple streams.
Trumbull.

Bowery
(Bow"er*y), n.; pl. Boweries [D. bouwerij.] A farm or plantation with its buildings. [U.S.Hist.]

The emigrants [in New York] were scattered on boweries or plantations; and seeing the evils of this mode of living widely apart, they were advised, in 1643 and 1646, by the Dutch authorities, to gather into "villages, towns, and hamlets, as the English were in the habit of doing."
Bancroft.

Bowery
(Bow"er*y), a. Characteristic of the street called the Bowery, in New York city; swaggering; flashy.

Bowess
(Bow"ess) n. (Falconry) Same as Bower. [Obs.]

Bowfin
(Bow"fin`) n. (Zoöl.) A voracious ganoid fish (Amia calva) found in the fresh waters of the United States; the mudfish; — called also Johnny Grindle, and dogfish.

Bowge
(Bowge) v. i. To swell out. See Bouge. [Obs.]

Bowge
(Bowge), v. t. To cause to leak. [Obs.] See Bouge.