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Webster 1913 Edition


Dowry

Dow′ry

(dou′ry̆)
,
Noun.
;
pl.
Dowries
(dou′rĭz)
.
[Contr. from
dowery
; cf. LL.
dotarium
. See
Dower
.]
1.
A gift; endowment.
[Obs.]
Spenser.
2.
The money, goods, or estate, which a woman brings to her husband in marriage; a bride’s portion on her marriage. See Note under
Dower
.
Shak. Dryden.
3.
A gift or presents for the bride, on espousal. See
Dower
.
Ask me never so much
dowry
and gift, and I will give . . .; but give me the damsel to wife.
Gen. xxxiv. 12.

Webster 1828 Edition


Dowry

DOWRY

,
Noun.
[See Dower. This word differs not from dower. It is the same word differently written, and the distinction made between them is arbitrary.]
1.
The money, goods or estate which a woman brings to her husband in marriage; the portion given with a wife.
2.
The reward paid for a wife.
3.
A gift; a fortune, given.

Definition 2024


dowry

dowry

English

Noun

dowry (plural dowries)

  1. Payment, such as property or money, paid by the bride's family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage.[1]
  2. (less common) Payment by the groom or his family to the bride's family: bride price.
    • 2009, Peter Uvin, Life after Violence: A People's Story of Burundi, page 125:
      The family of the groom makes sure the new couple has a house to live in and land to cultivate; they will also pay for the dowry (crucial, for without dowry the new father has no rights over his children; Trouwborst 1962: 136ff.)
  3. (obsolete) Dower.
  4. A natural gift or talent.

Antonyms

Hypernyms

  • marriage portion

Related terms

Translations

Verb

dowry (third-person singular simple present dowries, present participle dowrying, simple past and past participle dowried)

  1. To bestow a dowry upon.
    • 1999, Judith Everard, Michael C. E. Jones, Charters Duchess Constance Br, Page xvi
    • 2013 Noreen Giffney, Margrit Shildrick, Theory on the Edge: Irish Studies and the Politics of Sexual Difference, Page 62
    • 1911, Aida Rodman De Milt, Ways and Days Out of London, Page 108
    • 1976, Graham Anderson, Studies in Lucian's Comic Fiction, Page 19

See also

References

  1. Gary Ferraro & Susan Andreatta, Cultural Anthropology, 8th edn. (Belmont, Cal: Wadsworth, 2010), 223.

Anagrams