shower

Etymology 1

From Middle English shour, from Old English sċūr, from Proto-West Germanic *skūru, from Proto-Germanic *skūrō, probably from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱēwer- (“north; north wind; cold wind; rain shower”). Cognate with Dutch schoer, German Schauer, Norwegian skur.

noun

1. A brief fall of precipitation (spell of rain, or a similar fall of snow, sleet, or cascade).
   Today there will be frequent showers and some sunny spells.
   Occasionally, the sun pierces the clouds like a searchlight to illuminate a feature such as a farm, copse or stream, before being overwhelmed by an advancing shower. Wordsworth would have loved it! November 2 2022, Paul Bigland, “New trains, old trains, and splendid scenery”, in RAIL, number 969, page 57
2. A device for bathing by which water is made to fall on the body from a height, either from a tank or by the action of a pump.
3. An instance of using of this device in order to bathe oneself.
   I′m going to have a shower. (UK, Australia)
   I′m going to take a shower. (especially US)
4. A quantity of something that has characteristics of a rain shower.
   a shower of sparks;  a meteor shower;  a Gatorade shower
5. A party associated with a significant event in a person's life, at which the person usually receives gifts.
   1. A bridal shower.
      The shower will be held at the home of the bridesmaid.
   2. A baby shower.
      Her friends are throwing her a shower after her mom leaves.
6. (juggling) A pattern where the juggler passes objects horizontally from one hand to the other around chest height, and upward over the juggler's head to return to the first hand.
   See also shower (juggling) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
7. (obsolete) A battle, an attack; conflict.
8. (chiefly Ireland, UK, Australia, derogatory) A shower of shit.
   You all behaved like a shower, now you are to be treated like a shower 1956, Private's Progress (motion picture)
9. (chiefly Ireland, euphemistic, derogatory, with of and an invective) Used as an intensifying pluralizer or intensifier
   It was one of the worst feelings in the H-Block, one of the worst experiences to sit and listen to somebody getting beat. Because you were totally powerless, and you would always get somebody shouting at the door, “You shower of bastards!” It was always a crowd of screws and one or two naked men in a cell. They had total control. 1991, Allen Feldman, Formations of Violence: The Narrative of the Body and Political Terror in Northern Ireland, University of Chicago Press, page 208

verb

1. (followed by with) To spray with (a specified liquid).
2. To bathe using a shower.
3. To bestow liberally, to give or distribute in abundance.
   The individual in the army becomes used to holding human life in contempt, in fact the greater the slaughter, the greater is his merit; and the more medals, ribbons, and honors of hero-worship are showered on him, the more he becomes, after a time, indifferent to all sorts of human suffering and loss of human life. 1919, Boris Sidis, The Source and Aim of Human Progress
4. (intransitive) To rain in a shower; to cascade down.

Etymology 2

table From show + -er. Compare Old English sċēawere (“mirror”).

noun

1. One who shows.
   When you show a credential there's a protocol whereby the showee has assurance that the shower possesses a credential of the particular type without actually seeing the bit string. 2006, Bruce Christianson, Bruno Crispo, James A. Malcolm, Security Protocols: 12th International Workshop, page 18
   Once the showee looks at the object, the shower removes his or her gaze from the showee and gazes back at the object (see below and Fig. 5.2). 2018, Elisabeth Reber, Cornelia Gerhardt, Embodied Activities in Face-to-Face and Mediated Settings, page 153
2. An object or activity that is shown in a contest.
   That calf is going to be a great shower at the fair this year.
3. (slang) A man whose penis is close to its full (erect) size when flaccid, or the penis itself.
   As a man who can best be described as a "grower not a shower", I helped Brent realize that many people in the gay community are concerned in a very adolescent way with their dick size, including me. 1993, Barry Burns, “Muffin on Parade”, in soc.motss (Usenet)
   "Growers" are guys whose penises tend to contract a lot lengthwise when flaccid, while "show-ers" are guys whose penises could be said to merely "deflate" without contracting much in length. 1994, jenster, “Penis Size and other Eternal Questions”, in seattle.general (Usenet)
   His dick, if I remember correctly, is more of a shower than a grower[…] 2003, Austin Foxxe, Three the Hard Way: Tales of Three-way Sex Between Men