bourn
1 Americannoun
noun
-
a bound; limit.
-
destination; goal.
-
realm; domain.
noun
-
a destination; goal
-
a boundary
noun
Other Word Forms
- bournless adjective
Etymology
Origin of bourn
1515–25; earlier borne < Middle French, Old French, originally a Picard form of bodne; see bound 3
Vocabulary lists containing bourn
"The Tempest," Vocabulary from Acts 1 and 2
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"The Tragedy of Hamlet," Vocabulary from Act 3
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
As Winterson described it in a recent interview, this is “Shakespeare’s undiscovered country, ‘from whose bourn no traveler has returned.’”
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 24, 2023
In other words, was Hamlet right to call death an inescapable boundary, “the undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns?”
From New York Times • Jan. 21, 2021
It is the undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns and all that.
From Slate • May 9, 2018
Beyond the bestsellers: Michael Dirda picks 12 books for the holidays Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” writes vividly, if not quite accurately, of “the undiscovered country, from whose bourn no traveler returns.”
From Washington Post • Dec. 16, 2015
The name of this place was anciently called Tiburn, from its situation near a small bourn or rivulet formerly called Aye-brook or Eye-brook, and now Tybourn Brook.
From Hampstead and Marylebone The Fascination of London by Besant, Walter, Sir
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
