dower

noun

1. The part of or interest in a deceased husband's property provided to his widow, usually in the form of a life estate.
2. Property given by a groom to his bride or her family, at or before their wedding, in order to legitimize the marriage

   “[…] how features are abroad, / I am skill-less of; but, by my modesty,— / The jewel in my dower,—I would not wish / Any companion in the world but you […]”

   “In New Bedford, fathers, they say, give whales for dowers to their daughters, and portion off their nieces with a few porpoises a-piece.”

3. (obsolete)That with which one is gifted or endowed; endowment; gift.

   “How great, how plentiful, how rich a dower!”

   “Man in his primeval dower arrayed.”

   “For though God had bestowed on her the rare dower of a fine mind, He had not added to it the much more common, though infinitely less precious gift, of a quick intellect.”

4. (alt-of, alternative)Alternative spelling of dougher.

verb

1. (transitive)To give a dower or dowry to.

   “He had married a lady well educated and softly nurtured, but not dowered with worldly wealth.”

2. (transitive)To endow.

   “It was nothing of this earth, but a piece of the great outside; and as such dowered with outside properties and obedient to outside laws.”