bourn
1 Americannoun
noun
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a bound; limit.
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destination; goal.
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realm; domain.
noun
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a destination; goal
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a boundary
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of bourn
1515–25; earlier borne < Middle French, Old French, originally a Picard form of bodne; see bound 3
Vocabulary lists containing bourn
"The Tempest," Vocabulary from Acts 1 and 2
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"The Tragedy of Hamlet," Vocabulary from Act 3
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
As Winterson described it in a recent interview, this is “Shakespeare’s undiscovered country, ‘from whose bourn no traveler has returned.’”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 24, 2023
In other words, was Hamlet right to call death an inescapable boundary, “the undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns?”
From New York Times ● Jan. 21, 2021
It is the undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns and all that.
From Slate ● May 9, 2018
Beyond the bestsellers: Michael Dirda picks 12 books for the holidays Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” writes vividly, if not quite accurately, of “the undiscovered country, from whose bourn no traveler returns.”
From Washington Post ● Dec. 16, 2015
I know our postal service, know full well, Though we have told them to what bourn we flit, How many a missive shall obey the spell Of the old false address inscribed on it.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 146, March 4th 1914 by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
