Tower sb.¹

Forms: α. 1–2, 5–6 torr, 3–4 tor; β. 2–4 tur, 4 ture, (6 Sc. tuire); γ. 3–8 tour, 4–7 toure, 9 Sc. toor (tūr); δ. 3–4 towr, 4–7 towre, (4 towyr, 6 touuer), 6– tower, (8–9 tow’r). [In OE. torr masc., ad. L. turr-is; in late OE. and early ME. tr, a. 1300 written tour, a. OF. tor, tur (11th c.), F. tour (12th c.) = Pr. tor, Sp., Pg., It. torre:—L. turr-em (-im), acc. of turris fem. ‘tower.’ It is doubtful whether the ME. tor(r was a survival of the OE. form, since OF. had also tor.

  (But the Sc. examples in 1 α may perhaps belong to TORE sb.¹, and quot. c. 1400 in 4 to TOR sb. 2.)]

  I.  1. A building lofty in proportion to the size of its base, either isolated, or forming part of a castle, church, or other edifice, or of the walls of a town.

  Often with prefixed word expressing its nature or use, as bell-tower, church-tower, gong-tower, Martello tower, sea-tower, watch-tower, water-tower: see the first element. Round tower: see ROUND a. 15. Tower of silence, the structure on which the Parsees expose their dead.

  In the Border counties of England and Scotland, ‘tower’ is often the name of a solitary high fenced house, a tower-house or ‘peel-house’ (PEEL sb.¹ 4, 6), too small to be called a ‘castle,’ e.g., Gilnockie, Goldilands, Smailholm Tower.

  α.  c. 897.  K. Ælfred, Gregory’s Past. C., xi. 64. Ðin nosu is swelc swelce se torr on Libano ðæm munte.

c. 950.  Lindisf. Gosp., Matt. xxi. 33. Faeder hiorodes seðe … dalf in ðær wintroʓ & ʓetimberde torr [Ags. Gosp. stypel].

[c. 1470.  Golagros & Gaw., 42. Ane ciete thai se, With torris and turatis, teirfull to tell.

1501.  Douglas, Pal. Hon., III. xvii. Gilt birneist torris, quhilk like to Phebus schone.]

  β.  c. 1100–1154.  Tur [see 2].

c. 1200.  Trin. Coll. Hom., 143. On ure ledene tur, quod interpretatur turris.

c. 1250.  Gen. & Ex., 661. To make a tur, wel heȝ & strong.

  γ.  c. 1290.  S. Eng. Leg., I. 13/406. A suyþe heiȝ tour of gold and seluer.

1297.  R. Glouc. (Rolls), 8303. He ȝeld him vp … Þre toures of þe cite, þat in is warde were.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 2230 (Cott.). I rede we bigin a laboure And do we wel and make a toure.

c. 1400.  Maundev. (Roxb.), vi. 21. Þe toure of Babilon. Ibid., ix. 35. A faire kirke with many kirnelles and toures.

1530.  Lyndesay, Test. Papyngo, 633. Adew, fair Snawdoun, with thy touris hie.

1590.  Spenser, F. Q., III. ix. 35. Which they far off beheld from Trojan toures.

  δ.  1375.  Barbour, Bruce, IX. 451. And syne þe towris euerilkane And vallis gert he tummyll doune.

1382.  Wyclif, Gen. xi. 4. Comeþ, and make we to vs a citee and a towr, whose heiȝt fulli ateyne vnto heuene.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 498/2. Towre, turris.

1526.  Tindale, Matt. xxi. 33. Bilt a tower, and lett it out to husbandmen.

1625.  Bacon, Ess., Building (Arb.), 550. Those Towers, are not to be of the Height of the Front.

1667.  Milton, P. L., XII. 44. They cast to build A Citie & Towre, whose top may reach to Heav’n.

1742.  Gray, Eton, 1. Ye distant spires, ye antique towers. Ibid. (1750), Elegy, 9. From yonder ivy-mantled tow’r The mopeing owl does to the moon complain.

1815.  J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, I. 131. If it be square-topt, it is called a tower.

1849.  Parker, Goth. Archit., I. iii. (1874), 47. Early in the twelfth century occurred the fall of the tower of Winchester Cathedral.

1853.  M. Arnold, Scholar Gypsy, iii. And the eye travels down to Oxford’s towers.

1910.  Ethel Younghusband, Africa & Zanzibar, xxii. 262. Vultures, within one hour of a body being placed in the tower of silence, tear off all flesh from the bones, then the hot tropical sun soon dries and bleaches the bones.

  2.  Such a structure used as a stronghold, fortress, or prison, or built primarily for purposes of defence. (In this sense the name is sometimes extended to include the whole fortress or stronghold of which a ‘tower’ in sense 1 was the original nucleus.)

  Thus the Tower of London, in official designation His Majesty’s Tower, and in English History or contextually often simply The Tower, is the entire fortress surrounding the original White Tower of William Rufus.

c. 1100.  O. E. Chron., an. 1097. Þurh þone weall þe hi worhton on butan þone tur [on Lundenne]. Ibid. (c. 1122), an. 1101. Se b[iscop] Rannulf … ut of þam ture on Lunden nihtes oðbærst. Ibid. (1154), an. 1140. Me læt hire dun on niht of þe tur [at Oxford] mid rapes.

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 228. Þe tur nis nout asailed, ne þe castel.

c. 1330.  R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 50. Edrik was hanged on þe toure, for his trispas.

1387.  Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), VII. 449. Men myȝte wade bytwene Temsebrugge and þe toure of Londoun.

a. 1400–50.  Alexander, 1296. With trawynns and trebgetes þe towre to assaylle.

1503.  Wriothesley, Chron. (Camden), I. 5. In Februarie, died Queene Elizabeth at the Towre of London.

1557–75.  Diurn. Occurr. (Bann. Cl.), 84. Thay war commandit to remayne in waird within the auld tuire quhairin my lord of Murray lugeit.

1613.  Shaks., Hen. VIII., V. iii. 89. That forthwith, You be conuaid to th’ Tower a Prisoner.

1625.  Crt. & Times Chas. I. (1848), I. 36. A lioness hath whelped in the Tower.

1768.  Sterne, Sent. Journ., Hotel at Paris. The Bastile is but another word for a tower.

1813.  Scott, Trierm., II. xvii. She has fair Strath-Clyde and Reged wide, And Carlisle tower and town. Ibid., xvi. Carlisle town and tower.

1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., viii. II. 357. A warrant … directing the Lieutenant of the Tower to keep them [seven Bishops] in safe custody.

  b.  In early religious use, often applied to heaven.

a. 1240.  Lofsong, in Cott. Hom., 207. In syon þe heie tur of heouene.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 418. (Cott.). He fordestend tuin creature To serue him in þat hali ture.

13[?].  E. E. Allit. P., A. 965. Þou may not enter with-inne hys tor.

  3.  fig. (Cf. ‘stronghold,’ etc.)

13[?].  St. Ambrosius, 793, in Horstm., Altengl. Leg. (1878), 20/2. Ambrose … him self was wal and tour, To kepe holichirches honour.

c. 1374.  Chaucer, Boeth., IV. Met. iii. 96 (Camb. MS.). For with inne is Ihydd the strengthe and vigor of men in the secre toure of hir hertes.

1483.  Caxton, Gold. Leg., 407/1. Thenne she began strongely to assayle the toure of hys conscience.

1560.  Bible (Genev.), Ps. cxliv. 2. He is my goodnes and my fortres, my tower and my deliuerer.

1605.  Bacon, Adv. Learn., I. v. § 11. As if there were sought in knowledge … a tower of state for a proud mind to raise itself upon.

1909.  G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, iii. 55. The whole modern world is at war with reason, and the tower already reels.

  4.  transf. A lofty pile or material mass.

a. 1340.  Hampole, Psalter, cl. 4. Orgyns þat is made as a toure of sere whistils.

[c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 1983. A tempest hom toke on þe torres hegh [of waves].]

1604.  E. G[rimstone], D’Acosta’s Hist. Indies, III. xxvii. 202. There is a place … where are seene as it were two towers or pikes of a very high elevated rocke, rising out of the middest of the sea.

1840.  Dickens, Barn. Rudge, iv. Sundry towers of buttered Yorkshire cake.

1843.  Marryat, M. Violet, xli. 344. The Grand Tower, one of the wonders of the Mississippi. It is a stupendous pile of rocks, of a conical form, about one hundred and fifty feet high and one hundred feet circumference at its base, rising up out of the bed of the river.

1852.  Thackeray, Esmond, I. iii. She had a tower of lace on her head, under which was a bush of black curls. (Cf. 6 b.)

  5.  In other transferred uses:

  a.  In ancient and mediæval warfare, a tall movable structure, used in storming a fortified place. Cf. summer castle.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 498/2. Towre, made oonly of tymbyr, fala.

1483.  Cath. Angl., 391/1. A Towre of a tree, fala.

1552.  Huloet, Towre made of tymbre, fala.

1665.  Manley, Grotius’ Low C. Warres, 287. The Besiegers erected a great Tower of Wood, after the manner of Antiquity.

  † b.  The ‘castle’ borne on the back of an elephant. Obs.

1553.  Eden, Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.), 15. Vpon the pack-saddels, they haue on euery side a little house or towre. [margin] The Elephants towre.

1701.  W. Wotton, Hist. Rome, Alexander, ii. 489. They had 700 Elephants, all loaden with Towers.

1762.  [see tower-backed in 10].

c. 1820.  [implied in TOWERED 1].

  c.  The gun-turret on an ironclad.

1889.  Welch, Text Bk. Naval Archit., xiv. 143. The plan of placing the guns in revolving towers or turrets.

  6.  Applied to various things having the form, figure, or appearance of a tower, or likened to one.

  † a.  Chess. The Castle or Rook. Obs.

1562.  Rowbothum, Play Cheasts, A v. Of the Rooke or Towre. The Towre is named amongest the Spaniards, Portingales, and Italians, Rocho.

a. 1649.  Drumm. of Hawth., Fam. Ep., Wks. (1711), 146. For the towers or castles named rooks, these are the walled towns, which serve for a refuge for the conservation of the kingdom.

  b.  A very high head-dress worn by women in the reigns of William III. and Anne. It was built up in the form of a tower of pasteboard, muslin, lace, and ribbons. Cf. TOUR sb. 4. Hist.

c. 1612.  Sylvester, Lacrymae Lacrym., 159. Stript, from Top to Toe, Of giddie Gaudes, Top-gallant Tires and Towers.

1693.  Dryden, Juvenal, vi. 646. With Curls on Curls, they build her Head before, And mount it with a Formidable Tow’r. [Note] This dressing up the Head so high, which we call a Tow’r, was an Ancient way amongst the Romans.

1706, 1894.  [? implied in TOWERED 1, TOWERING vbl. sb.].

[1852.  Thackeray, Esmond, II. xv. My Lady of Chelsea in her highest tour, my Lady Viscountess out of black.]

  c.  Applied to various technical structures and contrivances, now only descriptively: see quots. and cf. shot-tower.

1662.  Merrett, trans. Neri’s Art of Glass, 243. The Leer (made by Agricola, the third furnace, to anneal and cool the vessels …) comprehends two parts, the tower and leer. Ibid., 365. Tower is the Iron on which they rest their Pontee when they scald the Glass.

1688.  R. Holme, Armoury, III. xx. (Roxb.), 228. The Philosophers Tower … is a kind of Tower furnace… The Maner of the Tower is four square.

1727–41.  Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Furnace.

1857.  Miller, Elem. Chem. (1862), III. 649. In many works the process of washing with acid is superseded by … a scrubber, consisting of a tower, the interior of which is filled with small coke resting upon perforated shelves.

1885.  Athenæum, 21 Feb., 252/1. A concise account of the treatment of iron ores for the blast furnace, a careful examination of the peculiar action of that vast metallurgical tower in all its modified forms.

  7.  Astrol. = HOUSE sb.¹ 8, MANSION sb. 5 a.

c. 1374.  Chaucer, Compl. Mars, 113. Now fleeth Venus in to cilenios toure.

1911.  Ramsay, in Expositor, March, 224. The twelve zodiacal stations of the sun were called towers by the Greek astrologers.

  II.  8. a. Lofty flight; soaring. (Cf. TOWER v. 3.)

1486.  Bk. St. Albans, D iv. Ther is an Hoby. And that hauke is for a yong man. And theys be hawkes of the toure: and ben both Ilurid to be calde and reclaymed.

c. 1518.  Skelton, Magnyf., II. xv. 926. Torde! man, it is an hawke of the towre.

1575.  Turberv., Falconrie, 53. She [the hobby] is of the number of those hawkes that are hye fleeing and towre hawkes.

1667.  Milton, P. L., XI. 185. Nigh in her sight The Bird of Jove, stoopt from his aerie tour, Two Birds of gayest plume before him drove.

  b.  The vertical ascent of a wounded bird.

1890.  Pall Mall G., 18 Jan., 2/3. A single goose … bravely struggles onwards, and finally, after a perfectly executed ‘tower,’ falls dead not far from the boat.

1895.  J. G. Millais, Breath fr. Veldt (1899), 82. The outlined figures are intended to represent the tower and drop of a single bird.

  III.  9. Phrases. a. Tower and town (also town and tower), an alliterative phrase for the inhabited places of a country or region generally. † b. Towers in the air, visionary projects, ‘castles in the air’ (see CASTLE sb. 11).

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 12983 (Cott.). Al þis werld, bath tur and tun.

1420.  Sir Amadace (Camden), lxxii. Thenne was he lord of toure and towne.

1599.  Broughton’s Lett., ii. 9. Your humours building towers in the ayre,… faine a sounding in your eares.

1813.  [see 2].

1842.  Wordsw., Poet’s Dream, viii. O’er town and tower we flew, and fields in May’s fresh verdure drest.

1870.  Tennyson, Flower, iv. Thieves … Sow’d it far and wide By every town and tower.

  IV.  10. attrib. and Comb. a. Simple attrib. ‘of or belonging to a or the tower,’ as tower-bell, -clock, -gate, -gun, -head, -pier, -room, -stair, -top, -ward, -wharf; ‘that is, consists of, has, or contains a tower,’ as tower-distillatory, -furnace, -gateway, -house, -keep, -porch, -steeple; b. objective, as tower-keeper, -transporter; tower-bearing, -razing, -supporting, -tearing adjs.; c. instrumental, locative, etc., as tower-backed, -capped, -crested, -crowned, -encircled, -flanked, -full, -studded adjs.; d. similative, etc., as tower-high, -like, -shaped adjs.; tower-wise adv. e. Special Combs.: tower-ball, a game for children; tower-cress, the cruciferous plant Arabis Turrita; sometimes applied to TOWER MUSTARD, Turritis glabra; † tower-fellow, a fellow prisoner in the Tower; tower-fellowship, a political division of citizens in the states of ancient Greece; tower hill, a hill near or on which a tower is built; spec. (with caps.) the rising ground by the Tower of London; tower-light, a window or hole in a tower; tower-proof a., proved or tested in the arsenal at the Tower of London; also allusively; tower-ring, a finger-ring bearing an image of a tower; tower-stamp, the official stamp or mark on gold and silver articles; hall-mark; † towers treacle = TOWER MUSTARD; tower-wagon, a wagon with a structure that can be raised and lowered to serve as a platform for repairing overhead wires, etc.; † tower-window, each of the turreted lights at the head of a late Gothic or Perpendicular window; tower-work, masonry built in the form of towers. Also TOWER MUSTARD, POUND, WEIGHT, -WORT.

1608.  Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iv. III. Schisme, 437. The *Towr-back’t Camel, that … on his bunch could have transported yerst Neer a whole Household.

1746.  Morell, Judas Maccabæus. (1748), III. 18.

1555.  Eden, Decades, 189. The *towrebearynge shoulders of Elephantes.

1592.  R. D., Hypnerotomachia, 7 b. A sound, as if the *tower bell of Saint Iohns Colledge in the famous Vniuersitie of Cambridge had beene rung.

1816.  Byron, Siege of Cor., i. Yon *tower-capt Acropolis.

1895.  A. J. Evans, in Folk-Lore, March, 44. As soon as the *tower-clock strikes twelve.

a. 1835.  Mrs. Hemans, Abencerrage, II. 39. *Tower-crested rocks.

1771.  Gentl. Mag., Nov., 490/1. At the sight Of distant Bremen’s *tower-crown’d height.

1688.  R. Holme, Armoury, III. xx. (Roxb.) 229. This is the form of another *Tower distillatory, but four square in the foundation with a round tower in the midst.

1896.  Spectator, 31 Oct., 586/1. There are other tribes of *tower-dwelling birds.

1730–46.  Thomson, Autumn, 114. Nurse of art, the city reared … her *tower-encircled head.

1709.  Strype, Ann. Ref., I. xlv. 457. He and his *Tower-fellows, hearing the bill … should pass.

1847.  Grote, Greece, II. xiii. III. 247. The symmories or *tower-fellowships of Teôs seem to be analogous to the phratries of ancient Athens.

1799.  H. Gurney, Cupid & Psyche, viii. (1800), 18. A vast and *tower-flank’d palace stood.

1598.  Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. ii. III. Colonies, 424. Th’ ingenious, *Towr-full, and Law-loving Soil.

1688.  *Tower furnace [see sense 6 c].

a. 1832.  Scott, Eve St. John, xxxii. He oped the tower-gate And he mounted the narrow stair.

1886.  Willis & Clark, Cambridge, III. 285. Wykeham’s *tower-gateway at New College is in three floors.

1719.  D’Urfey, Pills, III. 2. It seiz’d on the *Tow’r Guns.

1767.  Wesley, Jrnl., 5 Nov. I was surprised … to hear the Tower-guns so plain at above fifty miles distance.

1539.  in Archæologia, XI. 437. Uppon the same *towre hed a saker of brasse of Scottyshe makinge.

c. 1480.  Warkw., Chron. (Camden), 5. To the *Towre Hylle.

1485.  Rolls of Parlt., VI. 373/2. The Gardyns upon the Towre hill.

1843.  Penny Cycl., XXV. 98/1. The chief place of execution was outside the walls [of the Tower of London] on the neighbouring Tower Hill.

1687.  A. Lovell, trans. Thevenot’s Trav., I. 100. A little *Tower-house, with two or three Rooms.

1797.  Statist. Acc. Scot., XIX. 602. Tower houses are met with in a ruinous condition.

1897.  Windle, Life in Early Brit., ix. 176. The erection of the rectangular *tower keep, which the Norman used when he was building on a perfectly new site.

1885.  McCook, Tenants Old Farm, 135. Easy victims to the vigilant *tower-keeper.

1848.  Rickman, Archit. (ed. 5), 220. ‘Sound-holes’ … seems not so appropriate as air-holes or *tower-lights.

1552.  Huloet, *Towrelyke, turreus.

1625.  K. Long, trans. Barclay’s Argenis, IV. xix. 309. Elephants … brought into the Battell with their tower-like carriages.

1729.  Savage, Wanderer, IV. 119. He sees yon Tow’r-like Ship the Waves divide.

1893.  Scribner’s Mag., June, 718/1. The tower-like building of stone and stucco, octagonal in form, had a forbidding air.

1880.  Archæol. Cantiana, XIII. 26. Lanfranc’s *tower-piers, and a few feet of his crypt walls undoubtedly remain.

1886.  Willis & Clark, Cambridge, III. 356. Access to the hall is provided through a *tower-porch.

1673.  Phil. Trans., VIII. 6072. Powder proved *Tower-proof is a fifth part stronger than any Dutch powder.

1805.  T. Lindley, Voy. Brasil, 252. Brasil being supplied by the mother country with British tower-proof musquets.

1858.  Hogg, Life Shelley, II. 365. Blessed amongst women,… a tower-proof, fire-proof, bomb-proof blue.

1606.  Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iv. I. Tropheis, 401. ’Twas the Breach of a *Tower-razing Ram.

1877.  W. Jones, Finger-ring, 298. In the same collection is a Jewish *‘tower’ betrothal ring. Ibid. Another betrothal ring … called ‘temple’ or ‘tower’ from the figure of the sacred temple placed on the summit.

1886.  Willis & Clark, Cambridge, III. 331. The President is to have certain *tower-rooms.

1897.  Jacob Primmer in Rome (1903), 319. In this *tower-shaped tomb.

1800.  Hull Advertiser, 17 May, 3/3. A pamphlet, just published, price a good *Tower Shilling.

1848.  Thackeray, Van. Fair, lxii. The Batavier steamboat left the *Tower stairs laden with a goodly company of English fugitives.

1642.  Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., II. xix. 120. He knows if he sets his mark, (the *Tower-stamp of his credit) on any bad wares, he sets a deeper brand on his own conscience.

1845.  Clough, Silver Wedding, xii. That wariest glance would here Faith, Hope and Love, the true Tower-stamp discern.

1610.  Holland, Camden’s Brit. (1637), 216. A new Church with … an high spire besides the *Toure steeple. Ibid., 468. I saw the towre steeple of a small suppressed Friery. Ibid., 290. The *tour-supporting bankes, at Windsore.

1614.  Sylvester, Bethulia’s Rescue, III. 125. *Tower-tearing Mars, Bellona thirsting-bloud.

1840.  Dickens, Old C. Shop, lv. One of these … climbed with her to the *tower-top.

1903.  Daily Chron., 25 June, 4/5. An opportunity of witnessing the coaling of the flagship Majestic by the new Temperley *tower transporter.

1597.  Gerarde, Herbal, II. xxii. § 3. 213 (heading). Towers Mustarde … *Towers Treacle groweth in the west part of Englande vpon dunghils and such like places.

1911.  Daily News, 20 April, 1. A collapsible structure similar to a *tower wagon, was blown over by the wind.

c. 1450.  Brut, 423. The persone of the Toure and this ffrere Randulf fillen in debate and stryffe withynne the *Toure ward. Ibid., 431. Iohn Mortymere, knyght, brake pryson oute of the Toure of London, and was take ayen vpon the *Toure-wharf.

1593.  Rites of Durham (Surtees), 43. In this wyndowe, above all, are six little glasened *towre wyndowes.

1581.  A. Hall, Iliad, VII. 127. His huge and waightie targe, Which *towerwise so stoode aloft.

1634–5.  Brereton, Trav. (Chetham Soc.), 94. A little fort … built tower-wise.

1653.  H. Cogan, trans. Pinto’s Trav., xxv. (1663), 93. The top of the Platform was bordered with the same stone, cut into great *Tower-work.