dower house

American  

noun

British.

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

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dower house British  

noun

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

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Etymology

Origin of dower house

First recorded in 1860–65

Example Sentences

Also of her dower house, with all its beautiful furnishings.

From Playing With Fire by Barr, Amelia Edith Huddleston

Mr. Robert Arbuthnot is a retired Anglo-Indian official, and he and his wife have now lived for two years in the dower house which forms part of the Barwell Moat estate.

From The End of Her Honeymoon by Lowndes, Marie Belloc

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 Vaizey, George de Horne, Mrs.

It happened that the old lady's dower house was at Stevening, some fourteen or fifteen miles from Exham Park.

From Miss Arnott's Marriage by Marsh, Richard

When his resources were at an end and Lone unfinished she gave up her marriage settlements, including her dower house, which was sold that the proceeds might go to the completion of Lone.

From The Lost Lady of Lone by Southworth, Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte