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tower

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: Tower

English

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Image
 tower on Wikipedia

Alternative forms

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Etymology 1

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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”), Ancient Greek τύρρις (túrrhis) (Hesychius), τύρσις (túrsis). Displaced native Middle English stepel for the general sense of "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.

Doublet of tor, tourelle, and turret.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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tower (plural towers)

Image
A nineteenth-century water tower
  1. A tall, narrow structure (significantly taller than it is wide, either standing alone or forming part of a larger structure.
    an observation tower, an isolated watch tower, a church tower, conning tower
    • 1878, Harold Lewis, The Church Rambler: A Series of Articles on the Churches..., page 440:
      The valley is closed in at the lower end by the village, the church tower and a few roofs being visible through the trees; […]
    • 2009, Ross Burns, The Monuments of Syria: A Guide, page 235:
      […] an isolated watch-tower still stands above the highway as it passes around the lowest ridge extending from the castle. Called Burj al-Sabi ('Tower of the Youth'), it protected the access to the castle's port […]
    • 2011, Margaret Killjoy, What Lies Beneath the Clock Tower‎[1]:
      The clock tower above your apartment tolls, ringing twice. [...People] examine the bells with tuning fork and soundhorn, and scurry about with clipboard and blueprint, [but] they do not appear to be in the process of repairing or maintaining the bell-tower at all.
    1. A very tall open-framed structure on which communications devices are installed.
      signal tower, radio tower, cell tower
    2. A similarly framed structure with a platform or enclosed area on top.
      observation tower, watch tower
    3. A control tower.
    4. A skyscraper.
      The Sears Tower
      • 2022 January 25, Morgan Thomas, Manywhere: Stories, Macmillan + ORM, →ISBN:
        He'd taken her to see […] The Towering Inferno […] She imagined the screen itself must be hot as the burning San Francisco tower. […] She expected the screen to go up in a sheath of flame as the Glass Tower had, expected sparks to leap from the aluminum into the surrounding hayfields, […]
  2. (figuratively) An item of various kinds, such as a computer case, that is higher than it is wide.
  3. (figurative) A strong refuge; a defence.
  4. (business) Each of a set of information technology concerns within a business, which are treated separately so that they can be handled by different providers.
    • 2013, Great Britain, The Impact of Government's ICT Savings Initiatives, National Audit Office, page 28:
      Suppliers compete separately for the towers and service integrator and management contract, which assists the government in the integration and operation of its services.
    • 2023, Cybellium Ltd, Mastering ISO-IEC 20000-1, page 108:
      Service towers are significant IT functional areas, such as infrastructure, applications, security, etc., each possibly managed by a different service provider. The service integrator role is crucial for coordinating and integrating these service towers.
  5. (cartomancy) The sixteenth named (trump or Major Arcana) card in many Tarot decks, usually deemed an ill omen.
  6. (cartomancy) The nineteenth Lenormand card, representing structure, bureaucracy, stability and loneliness.
  7. (collective) A group of giraffes.
  8. (Can we verify(+) this sense?) (glassblowing) A metal stand used as a pivot to support a punty at a furnace.
  9. (historical) A tall fashionable headdress worn in the time of King William III and Queen Anne.
  10. (obsolete) High flight; elevation.
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book XI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
      Nigh in her sight
      The Bird of Jove, stoopt from his aerie tour,
      Two Birds of gayest plume before him drove.
Synonyms
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Derived terms
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Descendants
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  • → German: Tower
  • → Hindi: टावर (ṭāvar)
  • → Japanese: タワー (tawā)
  • → Korean: 타워 (tawo)
  • → Northern Kurdish: tawer
  • → Punjabi: ਟਾਵਰ (ṭāvar)
Translations
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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

See also

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Etymology 2

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

Verb

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

  1. (intransitive) To be very tall.
    The office block towered into the sky.
    • 1921, Reginald Farrer, chapter 10, in The Rainbow Bridge‎[3], London: E. Arnold & Co., page 181:
      Potentilla and Ivory Daphne sat humpily about on the unfolded lawns, and ahead, there towered out enormous cliffs and fantastic pinnacles of what looked like Dolomite.
    • 1954 August, H. M. Madgwick, “The Blaenau Festiniog Tunnel”, in Railway Magazine, page 569:
      This is itself a cheerless spot, particularly on a rainy day, when, overshadowed by the great massif of rock that towers in the background, and surrounded by the grey and cheerless quarries, it has a depressing character much in contrast with the green verdure encountered on the northern end of this interesting branch line.
    • 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.
  2. (intransitive) To be high or lofty; to soar.
    • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
      My lord protector's hawks do tower so well.
    • 1829, Edgar Allan Poe, “Tamerlane”, in Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems:
      When Hope, the eagle that tower’d, could see
      No cliff beyond him in the sky,
      His pinions were bent droopingly —
      And homeward turn’d his soften’d eye.
    • 1951 January, H. A. Vallance, “Kyle of Lochalsh Revisited”, in Railway Magazine, page 14:
      As we breasted the first summit, the precipitous mass of the Raven's Rock, towering some 250 ft. above the railway, looked grim and forbidding in the failing light, and distant Ben Wyves was shrouded in mist.
    • 1960 December, Voyageur, “The Mountain Railways of the Bernese Oberland”, in Trains Illustrated, page 752:
      To the left towers the Jungfrau, with the train heading directly towards it.
  3. (obsolete, transitive) To soar into.
    • 1667, John Milton, “(please specify the page number)”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
      Her state with oary feet; yet oft they quit
      The dank, and, rising on stiff pennons, tower
      The mid aerial sky
Derived terms
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Etymology 3

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Etymology tree
English tow
Proto-Indo-European *-yósder.
Proto-Italic *-āzijos
Latin -āriusnom.
Latin -āriusbor.
Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz
Proto-West Germanic *-ārī
Old English -ere
Middle English -ere
English -er
English tower

    From tow + -er.

    Pronunciation

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    Noun

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    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 […]

    References

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    • “tower”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

    Anagrams

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    Afrikaans

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    Verb

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

    1. alternative form of toor
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