tower

• towre (obsolete)

From Middle English tour, tur, tor, from Old English tūr, tor, torr ("tower; rock"; > English tor) and Old French tour, toer, tor; both from Latin turris (“a tower”). Compare Scots tour, towr, towre (“tower”), West Frisian toer (“tower”), Dutch toren (“tower”), German Turm (“tower”), Danish tårn (“tower”), Swedish torn (“tower”), Icelandic turn (“tower”), Welsh tŵr. See also tor.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈtaʊ.ə(ɹ)/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈtaʊɚ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aʊ.ə(ɹ)

tower (plural towers)

A nineteenth century water tower

1. A very tall iron-framed structure, usually painted red and white, on which microwave, radio, satellite, or other communication antennas are installed; mast.
2. A similarly framed structure with a platform or enclosed area on top, used as a lookout for spotting fires, plane crashes, fugitives, etc.
3. A water tower.
4. A control tower.
5. Any very tall building or structure; skyscraper.

   The Sears Tower

6. (figuratively) Any item, such as a computer case, that is usually higher than it is wide.
7. (informal) An interlocking tower.
8. (figuratively) A strong refuge; a defence.
   • Bible, Psalms lxi. 3

     Thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy.

9. (historical) A tall fashionable headdress worn in the time of King William III and Queen Anne.
   • Hudibras

     Lay trains of amorous intrigues / In towers, and curls, and periwigs.

10. (obsolete) High flight; elevation.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Johnson to this entry?)

11. The sixteenth trump or Major Arcana card in many Tarot decks, usually deemed an ill omen.
12. (cartomancy) The nineteenth Lenormand card, representing structure, bureaucracy, stability and loneliness.

• donjon

• → German: Tower
• → Hindi: टावर (ṭāvar)
• → Japanese: タワー (tawā)
• → Korean: 타워 (tawo)
• → Punjabi: ਟਾਵਰ (ṭāvr)

From Middle English touren, torren, torrien, from Old English *torrian, from the noun (see above).

tower (third-person singular simple present towers, present participle towering, simple past and past participle towered)

1. (intransitive) To be very tall.
   • 2013 August 3, “Revenge of the nerds”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:

     Think of banking today and the image is of grey-suited men in towering skyscrapers. Its future, however, is being shaped in converted warehouses and funky offices in San Francisco, New York and London, where bright young things in jeans and T-shirts huddle around laptops, sipping lattes or munching on free food.

   The office block towered into the sky.

2. (intransitive) To be high or lofty; to soar.
   • William Shakespeare

     My lord protector's hawks do tower so well.

3. (obsolete, transitive) To soar into.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Milton to this entry?)

• tower over

• The Tower (Tarot card) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• mast

tow +‎ -er

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈtəʊ.ə(ɹ)/

tower (plural towers)

1. One who tows.
   • 1933, Henry Sturmey, ‎H. Walter Staner, The Autocar

     But as the tower and towee reached the cross-roads again, another car, negligently driven, came round the corner, hit the Morris, and severed the tow rope, sending the unfortunate car back again into the shop window […]

• towre, twoer, wrote

tower (present tower, present participle towerende, past participle getower)

1. Alternative form of toor.