What does "bourn" mean?
Bourn: A stream or rivulet; a burn. My little boat can safely pass this perilous bourn. Spenser.
Additional senses
- 2.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 bourn No traveler returns. Shak. Sole bourn, sole wish, sole object of my song. Wordsworth. To make the doctrine . . . their intellectual bourne. Tyndall.
Sources
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
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- Published: 2026-07-17 · Modified: 2026-07-17