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countable and uncountable, plural dowries
Payment, such as property or money, paid by the bride's family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage. examples
(less common) Payment by the groom or his family to the bride's family: bride price. quotations 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.)
2009, Peter Uvin, Life after Violence: A People's Story of Burundi, page 125
(obsolete) Dower.
A natural gift or talent. examples
third-person singular simple present dowries, present participle dowrying, simple past and past participle dowried
To bestow a dowry upon. quotations examples
1999, Judith Everard, Michael C. E. Jones, Charters Duchess Constance Br, page xvi
2013, Noreen Giffney, Margrit Shildrick, Theory on the Edge: Irish Studies and the Politics of Sexual Difference, page 62
1976, Graham Anderson, Studies in Lucian's Comic Fiction, Page 19
1911, Aida Rodman De Milt, Ways and Days Out of London, page 108