# tower
## English
### Alternative forms

* towre (obsolete)

### Etymology 1

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).
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

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈtaʊ.ə(ɹ)/
* (General American) IPA: /ˈtaʊɚ/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -aʊ.ə(ɹ)

#### Noun

tower (plural towers)
* A very tall iron-framed structure, usually painted red and white, on which microwave, radio, satellite, or other communication antennas are installed; mast.
* A similarly framed structure with a platform or enclosed area on top, used as a lookout for spotting fires, plane crashes, fugitives, etc.
* A water tower.
* A control tower.
* Any very tall building or structure; skyscraper.
    The Sears Tower
* (figuratively) An item of various kinds, such as a computer case, that is higher than it is wide.
* (informal) Short for interlocking tower..
* (figurative) A strong refuge; a defence.
** 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 61:3:Thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy.
* (historical) A tall fashionable headdress worn in the time of King William III and Queen Anne.
** 1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC:Lay trains of amorous intrigues / In towers, and curls, and periwigs.
* (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.
* The sixteenth trump or Major Arcana card in many Tarot decks, usually deemed an ill omen.
* (cartomancy) The nineteenth Lenormand card, representing structure, bureaucracy, stability and loneliness.
* (collective) A group of giraffes
* (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.
* (glassblowing) A metal stand used as a pivot to support a punty at a furnace.

##### Synonyms

* donjon

##### Derived terms

* bell tower
* cat tower
* chain tower
* Charters Towers
* church tower
* clock tower
* coaling tower
* conning tower
* control tower
* cooling tower
* dice tower
* drop tower
* drum tower
* fire lookout tower
* fire tower
* fire tower stairway
* flare tower
* folly tower
* Glover's tower
* Glover tower
* guardtower
* hose tower
* interlocking tower
* ivory tower
* lantern tower
* Leaning Tower
* lift tower
* lookout tower
* Martello tower
* mini tower
* moonlight tower
* moon tower
* observation tower
* pencil tower
* Pictish tower
* power tower
* prilling tower
* radio tower
* scaffolding tower
* shot tower
* siege tower
* smoke tower
* summer-tower
* telecommunications tower
* Texas tower
* tower bastion
* tower block
* tower crane
* tower defence
* tower defense
* Tower Hamlets
* Tower Hill
* tower house
* towerman
* tower mustard
* tower of Babel
* Tower of London
* tower of silence
* tower of strength
* towers of Hanoi
* transmission tower
* wakeboard tower
* wall tower
* watch-tower
* watchtower
* water tower
* winding tower
* wind tower

##### Descendants

* → German: Tower
* → Hindi: टावर (ṭāvar)
* → Japanese: タワー (tawā)
* → Korean: 타워 (tawo)
* → Northern Kurdish: tawer
* → Punjabi: ਟਾਵਰ (ṭāvar)

##### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Etymology 2

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

#### Verb

tower (third-person singular simple present towers, present participle towering, simple past and past participle towered)
* (intransitive) To be very tall.
    The office block towered into the sky.
** 1921, Reginald Farrer, chapter 10, in The Rainbow Bridge‎, 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.
* (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.
* (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

* tower over

#### See also

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

### Etymology 3

From tow +‎ -er.

#### Pronunciation

* (UK) IPA: /ˈtəʊ.ə(ɹ)/

#### Noun

tower (plural towers)
* 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 […]

### Anagrams

* towre, twoer, wrote

## Afrikaans
### Verb

tower (present tower, present participle towerende, past participle getower)
* Alternative form of toor