Also 5 Sc. towar. [f. TOW v.1 + -ER1.] One who tows or draws with a rope; esp. one who tows a boat on a river or canal.
(In quots. 1494 the sense is uncertain; cf. quot. 1494 in TOW v.1 1, which refers to the same transaction.)
[1494. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., I. 248. For the drawyne of viij treis fra the Sallache to the bote, and to a towar to gid thame,… v s. iiij d. Ibid. Item, gyffyne tyll a towar, for to helpe to bryng doune the cariour fra Lochlomond,… ij s.]
1611. Cotgr., Tireur, a drawer … tugger, tower.
1795. Anderson, Brit. Emb. China, vi 80. These pieces of wood … rest upon their breasts, and by leaning against them the towers increase the power of their exertions.
1883. M. H. Hayes, Ind. Racing Remin., 231. The broken ground over which these native towers have to travel.
1887. J. Ashby Sterry, Lazy Minstrel (1892), 155. My tow-ers are young and my tow-ers are fair: The one is Eleven, the other Nineteen, The merriest maidens that ever were seen.
1889. J. K. Jerome, Three Man in Boat, ix. A couple of towers walking briskly along.
