subs. (old).—1. A fashion in feminine hair-dressing, temp. William III. and Anne: pasteboard, ribbon, and lace were built up in tiers, or in stiffened bows, and draped with a lace scarf or veil. Also (2) a wig or the natural hair built up in the same fashion; and (3) false hair worn on the forehead (B. E.).
1663. BUTLER, Hudibras, ‘To his Lady,’ 186.
| Lay trains of amourous intrigues | |
| In TOW’RS, and curls, and periwigs. |
1675. The Woman turn’d Bully, ii. 1. ’Tis a frightful thing to see some women, that pass for Beauties in due time and place, undress’d: I do not mean naked; but only their face without the TOOR, Shades, Locks, Hollows, Bullies, and some transitory Patches.
1675. The Ape-Gentle-Woman, or the Character of an Exchange-Wench, 1. Her greatest ingenuity consists in curling up her TOWRE, and her chiefest care in putting it on, for to make it fit right she so bedaubs her brow with gum and powder that it glistens like a Woodstreet cake, or ice dreg’d with snow.
1676. ETHEREGE, The Man of Mode, ii. 1. Her TOUR wou’d keep in curl no longer.
1681. A. RADCLIFFE, Ovid Travestie, 63.
| Should I adorn my Head with Curles and TOWERS? | |
| When a poor Skipper’s Cap does cover yours. |
1710. CONGREVE, Ovid’s Art of Love, iii.
| And Art gives Colour which with Nature vyes. | |
| The well-wove TOURS they wear, their own are thought; | |
| But only are their own, as what they’ve bought. |
1711. [W. C. SYDNEY, England and the English in Eighteenth Century, i. 90. About the year 1711 the good taste of the Queen induced her to discontinue wearing the … TOWER or Bow steeple, names which the wits bestowed in derision.]
Verb. (old cant).—(1) To watch closely; to see, observe, understand: as a hawk on the look-out for prey: also TOURE, TOUR, TWIRE, TWYRE; TO TOUR OUT = to go abroad in search of booty: hence to be off, to decamp (HARMAN, B. E. and GROSE). [GROSE: ‘to overlook, to rise aloft, as in a high tower.’ DYCE: ‘a verb particularly applicable to certain hawks, etc., which TOWER aloft, soar spirally to a station high in the air, and thence swoop upon their prey.’]
1567. HARMAN, A Caveat or Warening for Common Cursetors (E.E.T.S.), 86. Now I TOWER that bene bouse makes nase nabes.
1607. DEKKER, Jests to Make You Merie [GROSART, Works, ii. 329]. Kinchen the coue TOWRES, which is as much as, Fellow the man smokes or suspects you.
1610. ROWLANDS, Martin Mark-all. ‘TOWRE out ben Morts’ [Title].
1737. Old Ballad, ‘The Black Procession’ [Bacchus and Venus].
| TOURE you well; hark you well, see |
1822. SCOTT, The Fortunes of Nigel, II. vi. TOUR the bien mort TWIRING at the gentry cove!
1837. B. DISRAELI, Venetia, 71. Queer cuffin will be the word if we don’t TOUR.
BEEN ROUND THE TOWER (old cant).—Clipped: of money (B. E. and GROSE).
