Tower v.

Forms: see the sb. [f. TOWER sb.¹]

  I.  1. intr. To rise or extend to a great height like a tower; to rise aloft, stand high.

  (In quot. c. 1400. the sense of torret is very uncertain.)

[c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 1637. Toures full tore torret aboue, Þat were of heght so hoge, as I here fynde.]

1582.  Stanyhurst, Æneis, I. (Arb.), 31. O wights most blessed, whose wals be thus happelye touring.

1590.  Spenser, F. Q., II. xii. 30. On th’ other side an high rocke toured still.

1610.  Holland, Camden’s Brit. (1637), 581. Dudley Castle towreth up upon an hill.

1690.  C. Nesse, O. & N. Test., I. 268. Like pillars of smoke towering upward.

1715–20.  Pope, Iliad, II. 565. The king of kings, majestically tall, Tow’rs o’er his armies, and outshines them all.

1834.  Mrs. Somerville, Connex. Phys. Sc., xxvii. (1849), 300. Magnificent trees tower to the height of 150 or 200 feet above the banana, the bamboo.

1863.  Geo. Eliot, Romola, vi. Over every fastness … there towers some huge Frankish fortress.

1885–94.  R. Bridges, Eros & Psyche, March, xxiv. She saw the evening light In shifting colour to the zenith tower.

  b.  fig. Usually const. above.

1776.  Boswell, 11 April, in Johnson. Does not Gray’s poetry, sir, tower above the common mark?

1820.  Hazlitt, Lect. Dram. Lit., 12. He [Shakspeare] towered above his fellows. Ibid. (1822), Table-t., Ser. II. iii. (1869), 66. Her voice towered above the whole confused noise of the orchestra.

1869.  Trollope, He knew he was Right, xxviii. When she first read the letter … she towered in her passion.

  2.  trans. To raise or uplift to a height; to exalt.

1596.  Warner, Alb. Eng., XII. lxx. (1612), 295. English Poets Many, Of which are some … that towre their wits too hie.

1645.  Rutherford, Trial & Tri. Faith (1845), 299. The Soul is lifted up and towered like a high building.

1821.  Clare, Vill. Minstr., I. 75. Where hills tower’d high their crowns.

1849.  W. S. Mayo, Kaloolah, vi. (1851), 26. Gigantic trees, which towered their lofty heads to the clouds.

  3.  intr. a. Hawking. To mount up, as a hawk, so as to be able to swoop down on the quarry: cf. TOWER sb.¹ 8. Also fig.

1593.  Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., II. i. 10. My Lord Protectours Hawkes do towre so well. Ibid. (1605), Macb., II. iv. 12. A Faulcon towring in her pride of place.

1616.  B. Jonson, Epigr., I. lxxxv. Shee doth instruct men by her gallant flight, That they to knowledge so should toure upright And never stoope, but to strike ignorance.

1878.  M. A. Brown, Nadeschda, 27. Loose thy hawk and let it tower.

  b.  To soar aloft, as a bird.

1647.  N. Bacon, Disc. Govt. Eng., I. xlvii. (1739), 77. The Eagle had cast its Feathers, and could towre no more.

a. 1682.  H. Blunt, Poem addr. to Garth, 14, in Dispens. (1709), Pref. So the Young Eagle that his Force would try, Faces the Sun, and tow’rs it to the Sky.

1728.  Ramsay, Lure, 93. See, see! he like a lavrock tours.

1817–8.  Cobbett, Resid. U. S. (1822), 211. The pheasant does not tower, but darts through the trees.

1885–94.  R. Bridges, Eros & Psyche, Sept., xvi. He flasht his pens, and sweeping widely round Tower’d to air.

  c.  To rise vertically, as a bird when wounded.

1812.  Col. Hawker, Diary (1893), I. 39. With the exception of one which towered, all my birds fell dead to the gun.

1837.  [see TOWERING vbl. sb.].

  † 4.  fig. To rise on high, to soar. Obs.

1597.  Deloney, Canaans Calam. (1912), 422. Their mounting minds that towred past their strength.

1641.  J. Jackson, True Evang. T., II. 113. S. John … towred aloft into the highest mysteries of Divinity.

1643.  Sir T. Browne, Relig. Med., II. § 8. I have seen a Grammarian towr and plume himself over a single line in Horace.

1748.  Johnson, Van. Hum. Wishes, 103. Still to new heights his restless wishes tower.

  † 5.  trans. To soar aloft in or into; to rise to.

1604.  Drayton, Owle, 149. By Night I towre the Heauen, deuoy’d of feare.

a. 1649.  Drumm. of Hawth., Poems (1790), 283. He towers those golden bounds He did to sun bequeath.

1667.  Milton, P. L., VII. 441. Yet oft they quit The Dank, and rising on stiff Pennons, towre The mid Aereal Skie.

  † II.  6. trans. To furnish with a tower or towers.

c. 1440.  [see TOWERING vbl. sb.].

1450.  in Charters, etc., Edinb. (1871), 71. To … wall, toure, turate, and uther wais to strengthen oure foresaid Burgh.

a. 1548.  Hall, Chron., Hen. VIII., 59. This Gardeyn was towred at euery corner.