bride price

or bride-price


noun
  1. (in some nonindustrial societies) the money or goods given to the family of a bride by the bridegroom or his family.

Origin of bride price

1
First recorded in 1875–80
  • Also called bride·wealth [brahyd-welth]. /ˈbraɪdˌwɛlθ/.

Words Nearby bride price

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use bride price in a sentence

  • The rule in both Iliad and Odyssey is that the wooer gives a bride-price to the father of the bride, ethna.

    Homer and His Age | Andrew Lang
  • In that song the injured husband, Hephaestus, claims back the bride-price which he had paid to the father of his wife, Zeus.

    Homer and His Age | Andrew Lang
  • The bride-price varied much, according to the position of the parties, but was in excess of that paid for a slave.

  • In Homer girls are proud to be bought and to bring to their fathers a bride price of many cows.

    Folkways | William Graham Sumner
  • Inside the we-group the first need for money is for fees, fines, amercements, and bride price.

    Folkways | William Graham Sumner

British Dictionary definitions for bride price

bride price

noun
  1. (in some societies) money, property, or services given by a bridegroom to the kinsmen of his bride in order to establish his rights over the woman

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012