The Collaborative International Dictionary
Bower \Bo"wer\, n. [From Bow, v. & n.]
One who bows or bends.
(Naut.) An anchor carried at the bow of a ship.
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A muscle that bends a limb, esp. the arm. [Obs.]
His rawbone arms, whose mighty brawned bowers Were wont to rive steel plates and helmets hew.
--Spenser.Best bower, Small bower. See the Note under Anchor.
Bower \Bow"er\ (bou"[~e]r), n. [G. bauer a peasant. So called from the figure sometimes used for the knave in cards. See Boor.] One of the two highest cards in the pack commonly used in the game of euchre.
Right bower, the knave of the trump suit, the highest card (except the ``Joker'') in the game.
Left bower, the knave of the other suit of the same color as the trump, being the next to the right bower in value.
Best bower or Joker, in some forms of euchre and some other games, an extra card sometimes added to the pack, which takes precedence of all others as the highest card.
Wiktionary
n. (context euchre English) An extra card sometimes added to the pack, which takes precedence over all others as the highest card.
Usage examples of "best bower".
By the time he dropped into the jolly-boat the kedge had already been lowered into the red cutter, the best bower was hanging from the cathead, poised just over the launch, and fresh water was spouting over the side, lightening the ship at a great pace.
He focussed his glass on the entrance to the harbour, a hundred yards wide, nodded, glanced at the boats, ready to be hoisted out, at the best bower a-cockbill, at Mr White with his guns.
The capstan was clanking as they hove the ship up towards the best bower.
By the discovery that his own Mr Fellowes, seduced by the bosun of the Sirius and a desire to be rich now rather than at some later period when he might be dead, had not only looked upon the thunderstruck best bower as a perquisite, but had done the same by the kedge, fifty fathom of two-inch rope, and an unreasonable quantity of other stores--a court-martial quantity.
But before he went below he told me to take care to show you the best bower, a most amazing philosophical sight.
Not to bore you with the details, dear, dear Sophie, we laid out five hawsers an-end with our best bower firm in gritty ooze to warp the frigate out in case the high battery should knock any spars away, stood in before dawn with a moderate NNE breeze and began hammering the batteries guarding the entrance.
With an enormous smithy-noise the ball struck the fluke of the Sophie's best bower anchor, bent it half over and glanced off into the sea far behind.