noun
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the life interest in a part of her husband's estate allotted to a widow by law
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an archaic word for dowry
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a natural gift or talent
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of dower
1250–1300; Middle English dowere < Old French do ( u ) aire < Medieval Latin dōtārium. See dot 2, -ary
Vocabulary lists containing dower
Selection Vocabulary 4, Unit 5
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Vocabulary from the Magna Carta, List 2
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
As historians John Dower and Ronald Takaki have shown, such exterminationist sentiments were fueled by anti-Asian racism, which framed the Pacific War in the American imagination as a race war.
From Salon • Aug. 14, 2025
The campaigners are former BBC journalist Laura Trevelyan and her cousin John Dower, who recently apologised to the Caribbean island of Grenada for their family's historic role in the slave trade.
From BBC • Apr. 1, 2023
While other stories about death are often produced as a reflection of someone’s passing or in the immediate aftermath, Lopez wrote this story from “inside the chaos of it,” says the play’s director David Dower.
From Los Angeles Times • May 21, 2022
“It’s a simple question of who gets to decide and under the Texas Constitution … that authority is vested in the governor of the state of Texas,” Dower said.
From Seattle Times • Aug. 20, 2021
Then, searching for another example, I recalled August nights at Dower House, with the moonlight lying like water between the black shadows of the trees on the lawn.
From San Crist?bal de la Habana by Hergesheimer, Joseph
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
