dower
/ˈdaʊ.əɹ/[ˈdaʊ.ə(ɹ)]
dower noun: the part of or interest in a deceased husband's property provided to his widow, usually in the form of a life estate. Also the alternative spelling of dougher.
Noun
dower (plural dowers)
- 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 Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published...
- 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, dowry
- Antonyms:
- dowry
- 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
Verb
dower (third-person singular simple present dowers, present participle dowering, simple past and past participle dowered)
- 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
Proper noun capitalized: Dower
Dower (plural Dowers)
- A surname.
Also used as
dower is also the alternative spelling of dougher.
Synonyms of dower
Antonyms
Forms of dower
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | dowers |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | dowers |
| present participle | dowering |
| past participle | dowered |
| past | dowered |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Dowers |
Origin of dower
From Middle English dower, dowere, from Old French doeire, from Medieval Latin dōtārium, from Latin dōs. Doublet of dowry.
From Middle English dower, equivalent to dough + -er
Words formed from dower
Words that rhyme with dower
1 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about dower
- What does dower mean?
- Dower means the part of or interest in a deceased husband's property provided to his widow, usually in the form of a life estate.
- What part of speech is dower?
- Dower can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce dower?
- Dower is pronounced /ˈdaʊ.əɹ/.
- What is the plural of dower?
- The plural of dower is dowers.
Words near dower in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: dower (page history and authors); Dower (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-dower.wav.
Cite this entry: “dower.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dower. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.