Dowry

Definitions

1. Payment, such as property or money, paid by the bride's family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage.
   countable, uncountable
2. Payment by the groom or his family to the bride's family.
   countable, uncommon, uncountable
3. Inheritance from a deceased husband to his widow.
   countable, obsolete, uncountable
4. A natural gift or talent.
   countable, uncountable
5. A large amount.
   countable, informal, uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“The family of the groom makes sure the new couple has a house to live⟳ in and land⟳ to cultivate; they will also pay⟳ for the dowry (crucial, for without dowry the new father has no rights over his children; Trouwborst 1962: 136ff.)”

“But no palace had so fair a ceiling; for from the wooden beams were suspended a whole dowry of copper vessels—pails, cauldrons, water pots, of every colour from lustrous black to the palest pink.”

CEFR level