dower house

American

noun

British.

the dwelling that is intended for or occupied by the widowed mother of the owner of an ancestral estate.

dower house British

noun

a house set apart for the use of a widow, often on her deceased husband's estate

"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

Etymology

Origin of dower house

First recorded in 1860–65

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.

See Examples For:

dower house

She would settle herself in the dower house which is almost as fine as Hunsdon Towers.

From The Gorgeous Isle A Romance; Scene: Nevis, B.W.I. 1842 by Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton

The two aunts of these young ladies lived for many years in the dower house upon my estate in Hampshire.

From Anna the Adventuress by E. Phillips (Edward Phillips) Oppenheim

The old Mater was a venerable and disagreeable old lady whose bronchitic tendencies had made it necessary to abandon the dower house and make her abode in a more southern county.

From Lady Cassandra by Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey

Some were of opinion that it had been built as a dower house to one or other of the succeeding owners of Sotherby Hall, others that it had been a separate demesne altogether.

From The Heath Hover Mystery by Bertram Mitford

Whenever Philip married, she would find it no hardship at all to retire to the dower house at the edge of the park.

From Lady Merton, Colonist by Mrs. Humphry Ward

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023