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  

[bou-uh-ree] / ˈbaʊ ə ri /

adjective

1. containing bowers; leafy; shady.

   a bowery maze.

---

bowery ² American  

[bou-uh-ree, bou-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

From the corner window of the hotel you could see down into the bowery seclusion of Grange Lane, and Mr Wodehouse's famous apple-trees holding tempting clusters over the high wall.

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

Shakspeare and his wife sleep in the same beautiful church amid the bowery town of Stratford-on-Avon; and thither, rowing up the Avon almost to the churchyard, our tourists made their way.

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

“Ringed by a bowery, flowery angel-brood,Lilies and vestments and white faces....”

From The Brownings Their Life and Art by Lilian Whiting

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

It is flanked by low-rise apartment buildings and retail spaces typical of the Bowery neighborhood.

From Barron's ● Mar. 18, 2026

And Bar Primi on Bowery is offering a Lady & the Tramp Dinner that includes “the best spaghetti in town” and a complimentary Prosecco toast, according to the event’s Resy page.

From Salon ● Feb. 14, 2026

When Kristal’s vision for the club as a country music mecca didn’t materialize, he pivoted to the loud, abrasive sounds emerging from Bowery — even though the former Marine personally didn’t care for it.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2025

Cannons boomed from the forts lining the shore while merchants, clerks, clergy, lawyers, and omnibus drivers from Wall Street to the Bowery celebrated.

From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock

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

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

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