Definition
nounA brief fall of precipitation (spell of rain, or a similar fall of snow, sleet, or cascade); burst of hefty precipitation.
nounA device for bathing by which water is made to fall on the body from a height, either from a tank or by the action of a pump.
Sentence Examples
I usually take a shower in the evening.
I was caught in shower on my way home.
We now have a functioning shower.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English schour (“shower”), from Old English sċūr (“shower”), from Proto-West Germanic *skūru (“shower”), from Proto-Germanic *skūrō (“storm, short shower”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱēwer- (“north, north wind, cold wind, rain shower”).
Cognates
Cognate with Dutch schoer (“downpour, heavy rainshower”), German Schauer (“shower”), Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish skur (“shower”), Faroese skúrur (“shower”), Icelandic skúr (“shower”), Norn skur (“squall”), Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌿𐍂𐌰 (skūra, “storm”), Italian coro (“northwestern wind”), Spanish cauro (“northwestern wind”), Belarusian се́вер (sjévjer), сі́вер (sívjer), Bulgarian and Russian се́вер (séver, “north”), Czech and Slovak sever (“north”), Macedonian север (sever, “north”), Serbo-Croatian sȅvēr, sjȅvēr (“north”), Slovene sẹ́ver (“north”), Ukrainian сі́вер (síver, “cold, cold, bitter wind”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"They are wet with the showres of the mountaines, and imbrace the rocke for want of a shelter."
— 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 24:8:
"Occasionally, the sun pierces the clouds like a searchlight to illuminate a feature such as a farm, copse or stream, before being overwhelmed by an advancing shower. Wordsworth would have loved it!"
— 2022 November 2, Paul Bigland, “New trains, old trains, and splendid scenery”, in RAIL, number 969, page 57:
"The lights of Luluabourg disappeared, and we were in the blackness of the African night, which was continuously pierced by the showers of red sparks ejected skywards and red hot ashes deposited on the track as the fireman rocked his fire."
— 1958 February 26, Arthur F. Beckenham, “A Journey in the Belgian Congo”, in Railway Magazine, page 93:
"With this I maye be sure to come sauf / and goo sauf / and that the quene shal haue her lyberte as she had before / and neuer for no thynge that hath ben surmysed afore this tyme / she neuer fro this day stande in no peryll / for els sayd sir launcelot I dare auenture me to kepe her from an harder shoure than euer I kepte her"
— 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “xiiij”, in Le Morte Darthur, book XX:
"It was one of the worst feelings in the H-Block, one of the worst experiences to sit and listen to somebody getting beat. Because you were totally powerless, and you would always get somebody shouting at the door, “You shower of bastards!” It was always a crowd of screws and one or two naked men in a cell. They had total control."
— 1991, Allen Feldman, Formations of Violence: The Narrative of the Body and Political Terror in Northern Ireland, University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 208, →ISBN: