Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Bourne
{
, Bourn
,Bourne
}Noun.
[OE. ]
burne
, borne
, AS. burna
; akin to OS. brunno
spring, G. born
, brunnen
, OHG. prunno
, Goth. brunna
, Icel. brunnr
, and perh. to Gr. [GREEK]. The root is prob. that of burn
, v., because the source of a stream seems to issue forth bubbling and boiling from the earth. Cf. Torrent
, and see Burn
, Verb.
A stream or rivulet; a burn.
My little boat can safely pass this perilous
bourn
. Spenser.
{
, Bourn
,Bourne
}Noun.
[F.
borne
. See Bound
a limit.] A bound; a boundary; a limit. Hence: Point aimed at; goal.
Where the land slopes to its watery
bourn
. Cowper.
The undiscovered country, from whose
No traveler returns.
bourn
No traveler returns.
Shakespeare
Sole
bourn
, sole wish, sole object of my song. Wordsworth.
To make the doctrine . . . their intellectual
bourne
. Tyndall.
Definition 2024
bourne
bourne
English
Noun
bourne (countable and uncountable, plural bournes)
- (countable, archaic) A boundary.
- ..and though I did not stop in my advance, yet I went on slowly, like a man who should have passed a bourne unnoticed, and strayed into the country of the dead.
- Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes.
- But that the dread of something after death,/ The undiscover'd country from whose bourn[e]/ No traveller returns
- Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act III. Scene I.
- "For though from out our bourne of Time and Place,
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crossed the bar.- Tennyson 'Crossing the Bar'
- ..and though I did not stop in my advance, yet I went on slowly, like a man who should have passed a bourne unnoticed, and strayed into the country of the dead.
- (archaic) A goal or destination.
- (countable) A stream or brook in which water flows only seasonally.