dowry

UK /ˈdaʊəɹi/ US /ˈdaʊəɹi/
noun 5verb 1

Definitions

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

Inheritance from a deceased husband to his widow.

4

A natural gift or talent.

5

A 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.

verb

1

To bestow a dowry upon.

1976, Graham Anderson, Studies in Lucian's Comic Fiction, Page 19

Your note

not saved
0 chars