Cowper

Also found in: Thesaurus, Medical, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.

Related to Cowper: Cowper gland

Cow·per

(ko͞o′pər, kou′-, ko͝op′ər), William 1731-1800.

British poet considered a precursor of romanticism. His best-known work, The Task (1785), praises rural life and leisure.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Cowper

(ˈkuːpə; ˈkaʊ-)

(Biography) William. 1731–1800, English poet, noted for his nature poetry, such as in The Task (1785), and his hymns

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

Cow•per

(ˈku pər, ˈkaʊ-)

n.

William, 1731–1800, English poet.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Switch to new thesaurus

Noun	1.	Cowper - English surgeon who discovered Cowper's gland (1666-1709) William Cowper
	2.	Cowper - English poet who wrote hymns and poetry about nature (1731-1800) William Cowper

References in classic literature ?

It was written when Cowper felt again the darkness of insanity closing in upon him.

Cowper was already a man of nearly fifty when these hymns first appeared.

View in context

I thought so at the time; but you WOULD give him Cowper."

View in context

Next she had picked up Cowper's Letters , the classic prescribed by her father which had bored her, so that one sentence chancing to say something about the smell of broom in his garden, she had thereupon seen the little hall at Richmond laden with flowers on the day of her mother's funeral, smelling so strong that now any flower-scent brought back the sickly horrible sensation; and so from one scene she passed, half-hearing, half-seeing, to another.

View in context

As he approached, he recognized him as a Mormon named Cowper, to whom he had rendered services at different times.

View in context

But he who dodges hospitals and jails, and walks fast crossing grave-yards, and would rather talk of operas than hell; calls Cowper, Young, Pascal, Rousseau, poor devils all of sick men; and throughout a care-free lifetime swears by Rabelais as passing wise, and therefore jolly; --not that man is fitted to sit down on tomb-stones, and break the green damp mould with unfathomably wondrous Solomon.

View in context

For the matter of that he wanted me to read Cowper, from whom no one could get anything but good, and he wanted me to read Byron, from whom I could then have got no harm; we get harm from the evil we understand.

View in context

When he was again in their company, he could not help remembering what he had seen; nor could he avoid observations which, unless it were like Cowper and his fire at twilight,

View in context

Mr Pitt in a nightcap and bedgown, and without his boots, represented the poet Cowper with perfect exactness; and Mary Queen of Scots in a dark wig, white shirt-collar, and male attire, was such a complete image of Lord Byron that the young ladies quite screamed when they saw it.

View in context

Does it not make you think of Cowper? 'Ye fallen avenues, once more I mourn your fate unmerited.' "

View in context

Thus, one still reads in France, above the wicket of the prison in the seignorial mansion of Tourville, Sileto et spera ; in Ireland, beneath the armorial bearings which surmount the grand door to Fortescue Castle, Forte scutum, salus ducum ; in England, over the principal entrance to the hospitable mansion of the Earls Cowper: Tuum est .

View in context

Then followed the recommendation to choose Southey's "Life of Cowper," unless she were inclined to be philosophical, and startle the ladies of St.