Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Dowager
1.
(Eng. Law)
A widow endowed, or having a jointure; a widow who either enjoys a dower from her deceased husband, or has property of her own brought by her to her husband on marriage, and settled on her after his decease.
Blount.
Burrill.
2.
A title given in England to a widow, to distinguish her from the wife of her husband’s heir bearing the same name; – chiefly applied to widows of personages of rank.
With prudes for proctors,
dowagers
for deans. Tennyson.
Queen dowager
, the widow of a king.
Webster 1828 Edition
Dowager
DOWAGER
,Noun.
Definition 2024
dowager
dowager
English
Noun
dowager (plural dowagers)
- A widow holding property or title derived from her late husband.
- 1907, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, “chapter VI”, in The Younger Set (Project Gutenberg; EBook #14852), New York, N.Y.: A. L. Burt Company, published 1 February 2005 (Project Gutenberg version), OCLC 4241346:
- “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 huge yachts, […]!”
-
- Any lady of dignified bearing.
Translations
widow
|
lady of dignified bearing
