Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Shot \Shot\, n.; pl. {Shot}or {Shots}. [OE. shot, schot, AS.
   gesceot a missile; akin to D. schot a shot, shoot, G. schuss,
   geschoss a missile, Icel. skot a throwing, a javelin, and E.
   shoot, v.t. [root]159. See {Shoot}, and cf. {Shot} a share.]
   1. The act of shooting; discharge of a firearm or other
      weapon which throws a missile.

            He caused twenty shot of his greatest cannon to be
            made at the king's army.              --Clarendon.

   2. A missile weapon, particularly a ball or bullet;
      specifically, whatever is discharged as a projectile from
      firearms or cannon by the force of an explosive.

   Note: Shot used in war is of various kinds, classified
         according to the material of which it is composed, into
         lead, wrought-iron, and cast-iron; according to form,
         into spherical and oblong; according to structure and
         modes of operation, into solid, hollow, and case. See
         {Bar shot}, {Chain shot}, etc., under {Bar}, {Chain},
         etc.

   3. Small globular masses of lead, of various sizes, -- used
      chiefly for killing game; as, bird shot; buckshot.

   4. The flight of a missile, or the distance which it is, or
      can be, thrown; as, the vessel was distant more than a
      cannon shot.

   5. A marksman; one who practices shooting; as, an exellent
      shot.

   {Shot belt}, a belt having a pouch or compartment for
      carrying shot.

   {Shot cartridge}, a cartridge containing powder and small
      shot, forming a charge for a shotgun.

   {Shot garland} (Naut.), a wooden frame to contain shot,
      secured to the coamings and ledges round the hatchways of
      a ship.

   {Shot gauge}, an instrument for measuring the diameter of
      round shot. --Totten.

   {shot hole}, a hole made by a shot or bullet discharged.

   {Shot locker} (Naut.), a strongly framed compartment in the
      hold of a vessel, for containing shot.

   {Shot of a cable} (Naut.), the splicing of two or more cables
      together, or the whole length of the cables thus united.
      

   {Shot prop} (Naut.), a wooden prop covered with tarred hemp,
      to stop a hole made by the shot of an enemy in a ship's
      side.

   {Shot tower}, a lofty tower for making shot, by dropping from
      its summit melted lead in slender streams. The lead forms
      spherical drops which cool in the descent, and are
      received in water or other liquid.

   {Shot window}, a window projecting from the wall. Ritson,
      quoted by Halliwell, explains it as a window that opens
      and shuts; and Wodrow describes it as a window of shutters
      made of timber and a few inches of glass above them.

Tower \Tow"er\, n. [OE. tour,tor,tur, F. tour, L. turris; akin
   to Gr. ?; cf. W. twr a tower, Ir. tor a castle, Gael. torr a
   tower, castle. Cf. {Tor}, {Turret}.]
   1. (Arch.)
      (a) A mass of building standing alone and insulated,
          usually higher than its diameter, but when of great
          size not always of that proportion.
      (b) A projection from a line of wall, as a fortification,
          for purposes of defense, as a flanker, either or the
          same height as the curtain wall or higher.
      (c) A structure appended to a larger edifice for a special
          purpose, as for a belfry, and then usually high in
          proportion to its width and to the height of the rest
          of the edifice; as, a church tower.

   2. A citadel; a fortress; hence, a defense.

            Thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower
            from the enemy.                       --Ps. lxi. 3.

   3. A headdress of a high or towerlike form, fashionable about
      the end of the seventeenth century and until 1715; also,
      any high headdress.

            Lay trains of amorous intrigues In towers, and
            curls, and periwigs.                  --Hudibras.

   4. High flight; elevation. [Obs.] --Johnson.

   {Gay Lussac's tower} (Chem.), a large tower or chamber used
      in the sulphuric acid process, to absorb (by means of
      concentrated acid) the spent nitrous fumes that they may
      be returned to the Glover's tower to be reemployed. See
      {Sulphuric acid}, under {Sulphuric}, and {Glover's tower},
      below.

   {Glover's tower} (Chem.), a large tower or chamber used in
      the manufacture of sulphuric acid, to condense the crude
      acid and to deliver concentrated acid charged with nitrous
      fumes. These fumes, as a catalytic, effect the conversion
      of sulphurous to sulphuric acid. See {Sulphuric acid},
      under {Sulphuric}, and {Gay Lussac's tower}, above.

   {Round tower}. See under {Round}, a.

   {Shot tower}. See under {Shot}.

   {Tower bastion} (Fort.), a bastion of masonry, often with
      chambers beneath, built at an angle of the interior
      polygon of some works.

   {Tower mustard} (Bot.), the cruciferous plant {Arabis
      perfoliata}.

   {Tower of London}, a collection of buildings in the eastern
      part of London, formerly containing a state prison, and
      now used as an arsenal and repository of various objects
      of public interest.

Source : WordNet®

shot tower
     n : tower of a kind once used to make shot; molten lead was
         poured through a sieve and dropped into water