dower
To give a dower or dowry to.
Noun law
- The part of or interest in a deceased husband's property provided to his widow, usually in the form of a life estate.
Antonyms: curtesy
- Property given by a groom to his bride or her family, at or before their wedding, in order to legitimize the marriage
- […] how features are abroad, / I am skill-less of; but, by my modesty,— / The jewel in my dower,—I would not wish / Any companion in the world but you […] - 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”,...
- In New Bedford, fathers, they say, give whales for dowers to their daughters, and portion off their nieces with a few porpoises a-piece. - 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chapter 6:
Synonyms: bride price reverse dowry dower dowry
Antonyms: dowry
Hypernyms: marriage-portion price fee gift
- That with which one is gifted or endowed; endowment; gift.
- How great, how plentiful, how rich a dower! - c. 1600, John Davies, The Dignity of Man:
- Man in his primeval dower arrayed. - 1793, William Wordsworth, Descriptive Sketches:
- For though God had bestowed on her the rare dower of a fine mind, He had not added to it the much more common, though infinitely less precious gift, of a quick intellect. - 1856, Julia Kavanagh, chapter III, in Rachel...
Origin
From Middle English dower, dowere, from Old French doeire, from Medieval Latin dōtārium, from Latin dōs. Doublet of dowry.
Forms
Related
Noun alt of, alternative
- Alternative spelling of dougher.
Origin
From Middle English dower, equivalent to dough + -er
Forms
Verb
- To give a dower or dowry to.
- He had married a lady well educated and softly nurtured, but not dowered with worldly wealth. - 1861, Anthony Trollope, Framley Parsonage:
- To endow.
- It was nothing of this earth, but a piece of the great outside; and as such dowered with outside properties and obedient to outside laws. - 1927, H.P. Lovecraft, The Colour Out of Space: