tower

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A building or part of a building that is exceptionally high in proportion to its width and length.
2. n. A tall, slender structure used for observation, signaling, or pumping.
3. n. One that conspicuously embodies strength, firmness, or another virtue.
4. n. Computer Science A computer system whose components are arranged in a vertical stack and housed in a tall, narrow cabinet.
5. v. To appear at or rise to a conspicuous height; loom: "There he stood, grown suddenly tall, towering above them” ( J.R.R. Tolkien). See Synonyms at rise.
6. v. To fly directly upward before swooping or falling. Used of certain birds.
7. v. To demonstrate great superiority; be preeminent: towers over other poets of the day.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. In chem.: Same as distïlling-tube.
2. n. A drying-apparatus of cylindrical shape: same as calcium-chlorid tube.
3. n. In a railroad, a building in which are assembled the levers which control a system of switches and signals; a signalman's cabin. Signal-towers are usually two stories high, to give the signalman a view of the tracks and signals under his control. See switch-tower and signaling.
4. n. In geology, a columnar protrusion of eruptive rock, such as the famous spine of Pelée on Martinique. See cumulovolcano.
5. n. A building lofty in proportion to its lateral dimensions, of any form in plan, whether insulated or forming part of a church, castle, or other edifice. Towers have been erected from the earliest ages aa memorials, and for purposes of religion and defense. Among towers are included the minarets attached to Mohammedan mosques; the lofty bell-towers of Russia; the pillar or round towers of India, Ireland, and other places (see round tower); the square and octagonal towers at the west ends, crossings, etc., of churches; the massive keeps and gate-and wall-towers of castles and mansions; the peels of Scottish fortresses; the pagodas of India and China; the pharos, the campanile, and a great variety of similar buildings. Compare spireand steeple, and see cuts under bridge-tower, campanile castle, gabled, gate-tower, keep, lantern, pagoda, peel, and Rhenish.
6. n. In early and medieval warfare, a tall, movable wooden structure used in storming a fortified place. The height of the tower was such as to overtop the walls and other fortifications of the besieged place. Such towers were frequently combined with a batteringram, and thus served the double purpose of breaching the walls and giving protection to the besiegers.
7. n. A citadel; a fortress; a place of defense or protection.
8. n. In astrology, a mansion.
9. n. In heraldry, a bearing representing a fortified tower with battlements and usually a gate with a portcullis.
10. n. A high commode or headdress worn by women in the reigns of William III. and Anne. It was built up of pasteboard, ribbons, and lace; the lace and ribbons were disposed in alternate tiers, or the latter were formed into high stiffened bows, draped or not, according to taste, with a lace scarf or veil that streamed down each side of the pinnacle. Compare fontange and commode.
11. n. A wig or the natural hair built up very high.
12. To rise or extend far upward like a tower; rise high or aloft.
13. To soar aloft, as a bird; specifically.
14. to soar as a lark in the act of singing
15. to rise straight up in the air, as a wounded bird (see towering, n.)
16. to mount up, as a hawk to be able to swoop down on the quarry.
17. To rise aloft into.
18. n. An obsolete form of tour.

Wiktionary

1. n. A structure, usually taller than it is wide, often used as a lookout, usually unsupported by guy-wires.
2. n. figuratively Any item, such as a computer case, that is usually higher than it is wide.
3. n. informal An interlocking tower.
4. n. The sixteenth trump or Major Arcana card in many Tarot decks, deemed an ill omen.
5. v. To be very tall.
6. v. obsolete, transitive To soar into.
7. n. One who tows.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A mass of building standing alone and insulated, usually higher than its diameter, but when of great size not always of that proportion.
2. n. A projection from a line of wall, as a fortification, for purposes of defense, as a flanker, either or the same height as the curtain wall or higher.
3. n. A structure appended to a larger edifice for a special purpose, as for a belfry, and then usually high in proportion to its width and to the height of the rest of the edifice.
4. n. A citadel; a fortress; hence, a defense.
5. n. A headdress of a high or towerlike form, fashionable about the end of the seventeenth century and until 1715; also, any high headdress.
6. n. obsolete High flight; elevation.
7. v. To rise and overtop other objects; to be lofty or very high; hence, to soar.
8. v. obsolete To soar into.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. appear very large or occupy a commanding position
2. n. anything that approximates the shape of a column or tower
3. n. a powerful small boat designed to pull or push larger ships
4. n. a structure taller than its diameter; can stand alone or be attached to a larger building