dowager

Noun

dowager (plural dowagers)

1. A widow holding property or title derived from her late husband.
   • A reclusive dowager owned the pastures across the river, and her farmhands ran beef cattle on them.
   • “I don't mean all of your friends—only a small proportion—which, however, connects your circle with that deadly, idle, brainless bunch—the insolent chatterers at the opera, the gorged dowagers, the worn-out, passionless men, the enervated matrons of the summer capital, the chlorotic squatters on...1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter VI, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC
2. The widow of the holder of a title (usually a member of the peerage or a baronet); used in combination with the title she held during her husband's lifetime.
   • the Earl and Countess of Whiteacre, and the Earl's mother, the dowager Countess of Whiteacre
   • Sir George Sitwell, Bt. and Lady Sitwell, and Sir George's mother, the dowager Lady Sitwell
3. Any lady of dignified bearing, especially an older one.
   • A stately dowager entered the ballroom, and all eyes were upon her.