dowry

nounverbcommon in dialogue

United States//ˈdaʊəɹi//
United States//ˈdaʊɹi//

Payment, such as property or money, paid by the bride's family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage.

noun

1
Payment, such as property or money, paid by the bride's family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage.
2
Payment by the groom or his family to the bride's family.
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
obsoleteInheritance from a deceased husband to his widow.
4
A natural gift or talent.
5
informalA large amount.
But no palace had so fair a ceiling; for from the wooden beams were suspended a whole dowry of copper vessels—pails, cauldrons, water pots, of every colour from lustrous black to the palest pink.

Etymology

From Middle English dowarye, dowerie, from Anglo-Norman dowarie, douarie, from Old French douaire, from Medieval Latin dōtārium, from Latin dōs. Doublet of dower.

verb

1
To bestow a dowry upon.
[object Object]
[object Object]
1976, Graham Anderson, Studies in Lucian's Comic Fiction, Page 19

Forms

plural: dowries
past tense: dowried
past participle: dowried
present participle: dowrying
third person singular: dowries

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dowry · Payment, such as property or money, paid by the bride's family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage.

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