Word.ws English Dictionary

embower

/ɛmˈbaʊɚ/

embower verb: to enclose something or someone as if in a bower; shelter with foliage.

Verb

embower (third-person singular simple present embowers, present participle embowering, simple past and past participle embowered)

  1. (poetic, transitive) To enclose something or someone as if in a bower; shelter with foliage.
    • Her hand he seis’d, and to a shadie bank,
      Thick overhead with verdant roof imbowr’d1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, 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...
    • A small Indian village, pleasantly embowered in a grove of spreading elms.1809, Diedrich Knickerbocker [pseudonym; Washington Irving], A History of New York, from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), New...
  2. (intransitive) To lodge or rest in or as in a bower.
    • But the small birds in their wide boughs embowring / Chaunted their sundrie tunes with sweete consent;
  3. (intransitive) To form a bower.
    • Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks
      In Vallombrosa, where th' Etrurian shades
      High overarch't imbowr; or scattered sedge
      Afloat1667, 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...

Examples of embower in a sentence

  • The house stood in a situation so embowered, solitary, and remote from others, that when evening closed in, Mrs.1838, [Letitia Elizabeth] Landon (indicated as editor), chapter XIX, in Duty and Inclination: […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […]...
  • The embowered lanes, and the primroses and the hawthorn1884, Donald Grant Mitchell, Bound Together:

Forms of embower

third-person singular presentembowers
present participleembowering
past participleembowered
pastembowered
alternative formimbower

Origin of embower

Ultimately from Old English būr, from Proto-Germanic *būraz. Cognate with German Bauer (“birdcage”), Old Norse búr, (whence Danish bur, Swedish bur (“cage”)). Equivalent to en- + bower.

Words formed from embower

Questions about embower

What does embower mean?
Embower means to enclose something or someone as if in a bower; shelter with foliage.
How do you use embower in a sentence?
The house stood in a situation so embowered, solitary, and remote from others, that when evening closed in, Mrs.
What part of speech is embower?
Embower is a verb.
How do you pronounce embower?
Embower is pronounced /ɛmˈbaʊɚ/.
What is the past tense of embower?
The past tense of embower is embowered.

Words near embower in the dictionary

  1. embowelling
  2. embowellings
  3. embowelment
  4. embowelments
  5. embowels
  6. embower
  7. embowered
  8. embowering
  9. embowerment
  10. embowerments
  11. embowers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: embower (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-embower.wav.

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