from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
noun A widow who holds a title or property derived from her deceased husband.
noun An elderly woman of high social station.
from The Century Dictionary.
noun In law, a widow endowed or possessed of a jointure.
noun A title given to a widow to distinguish her from the wife of her husband's heir bearing the same name: applied particularly to the widows of princes and persons of rank.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
noun (Eng. Law) A widow endowed, or having a jointure; a widow who either enjoys a dower from her deceased husband, or has property of her own brought by her to her husband on marriage, and settled on her after his decease.
noun A title given in England to a widow, to distinguish her from the wife of her husband's heir bearing the same name; -- chiefly applied to widows of personages of rank.
noun the widow of a king.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
noun A widow holding property or titlederived from her late husband.
noun Any lady of dignifiedbearing.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
noun a widow holding property received from her deceased husband
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[Obsolete French douagière, from douage, dower, from douer, to endow, from Latin dōtāre, from dōs, dōt-, dowry; see dō- in Indo-European roots.]
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
I guess a dowager is actually always a woman who inherits property from her dead husband.
Now the maid had never heard the word dowager in her life, but thought she would make a shot for it, so when his reverence asked if Mrs. MacCarthy was at home, she blurted out: --
It distinguished the dowager Mrs. Smith from the wife of her eldest son; today the word dowager, imitating the English usage, is frequently employed in fashionable society.
Now the maid had never heard the word dowager in her life, but thought she would make a shot for it, so when his reverence asked if Mrs. MacCarthy was at home, she blurted out: ” 'No, sir, but the badger is.'
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