Jump To:

• bowery
  bowery

  adjective

  containing bowers; leafy; shady.
• Bowery
  Bowery

  noun

  a street in New York City noted for its cheap hotels and bars, frequented by vagrants and drunks

bowery

¹ American  

[bau-uh-ree] / ˈbaʊ ə ri /

adjective

1. containing bowers; leafy; shady.

   a bowery maze.

---

bowery ² American  

[bau-uh-ree, bau-ree] / ˈbaʊ ə ri, ˈbaʊ ri /

noun

• boweries
  plural

1. (among the Dutch settlers of New York) a farm or country seat.

2. the Bowery, a street and area in New York City, historically noted for its cheap hotels and saloons, and populated by people who were destitute and homeless.

---

Bowery British  

/ ˈbaʊərɪ /

noun

1. a street in New York City noted for its cheap hotels and bars, frequented by vagrants and drunks

---

Bowery Cultural  

1. A section of lower Manhattan in New York City.

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• boweries
  plural

Etymology

Origin of bowery¹

First recorded in 1695–1705; bower ¹ + -y ¹

Origin of bowery²

An Americanism dating back to 1640–50; from Dutch bouwerij “farm,” equivalent to bouw “cultivation” + -erij -ery

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bowery Bowery boweries

I will likely continue buying classic-fit light hickory bowery pants until they stop making them, or until I never go to an office again.

From Forbes ● Jun. 15, 2015

For years it’s been the place where I have routinely purchased pairs of light hickory bowery pants in a classic fit.

From Forbes ● Jun. 15, 2015

The journey from Caen, along the bowery Norman highways, was made in diligences.

From Zigzag Journeys in Europe Vacation Rambles in Historic Lands by Hezekiah Butterworth

They were to go in a "bowery wagon."

From Rose of Dutcher's Coolly by Hamlin Garland

These garden-walls, so delicious in their bowery retirements within, were not interesting outside to the pedestrian.

From The Doctor's Family by Mrs. (Margaret) Oliphant

But that friend, performance artist Leigh Bowery, had posed for Freud and thought she’d make a great sitter because she was reliable and adventurous, she said, and made the introduction.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 24, 2026

"Our new 120,000-square-foot building on the Bowery signals our redoubled commitment to new art and new ideas, and to the museum as an ever-evolving site for risk-taking, collaboration and experimentation," she said.

From Barron's ● Mar. 18, 2026

Playing those smaller shows in 2024, which also included the Underworld in Camden, London, and the Bowery Ballroom in New York City, is the bare-bones sound, much like rehearsals, that Sixx has always loved.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2025

By the time they reached the Bowery, the snow was a foot deep on the sidewalk.

From Salon ● Dec. 24, 2024

They had just reached the Bowery when Boaz suddenly asked, “You really mean to tell me that Ashmodai lives in the East Village?”

From "Night Owls" by A.R. Vishny

The boweries were more completely covered, and a greater proportion of bark was used in the construction of them.

From Villages of the Algonquian, Siouan, and Caddoan Tribes West of the Mississippi by David Ives Bushnell

The making of such "boweries" was continued by the Saints in Utah.

From The Story of the Mormons, from the date of their origin to the year 1901 by William Alexander Linn

Some of the early settlers built boweries of brush under which they rolled their covered wagons, to secure better protection from the pitiless Arizona summer sun, and with no other home for weeks.

From Mormon Settlement in Arizona A Record of Peaceful Conquest of the Desert by James H. McClintock