dowager
(ˈdaʊədʒə(r))
Also 6 do-, dou-, dowagier, douager.
[a. OF. douagere, -iere, douaygere, dowaigiere, doagiere widow enjoying a dower, fem. of douaigier, etc. (= mod.F. douairier), f. douage dower + -ier, -er2 2.]
A woman whose husband is dead and who is in the enjoyment of some title or some property that has come to her from him. Often added to the title so enjoyed, as princess-dowager, queen-dowager, dowager-duchess, dowager-queen, dowager-lady, etc.
(App. first used of Mary Tudor, widow of Louis XII; then of Catherine of Arragon, styled ‘Princess Dowager’.)
| 1530 Palsgr. Ep. to Hen. VIII, Your..most entirely beloved suster quene Mary douagier of France. 1542 Fabyan's Chron. Contn. vii. 700 In January dyed lady Katherine princes dowager [printed -yer]. 1558 Forrest Grysilde Sec. (1875) 93 They gaue her to name Ladye Douager. 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. i. i. 157, I haue a Widdow Aunt, a dowager, Of great reuennew. 1613 ― Hen. VIII, ii. iv. 180 Respecting this our Marriage with the Dowager Sometimes our Brothers Wife. a 1674 Clarendon Hist. Reb. xiii. §154 The two Dowagers, his mother and grandmother, having great joyntures out of the estate. 1701 Lond. Gaz. No. 3745/2 She was accompanied by the Dutchess of Savoy, her Mother, and by the Dutchess-Dowager. 1754 Hume Hist. Eng. I. xii. 277 He espoused Eleanor, dowager of William Earl of Pembroke. 1809 Naval Chron. XXII. 276 Mrs. Innes, Dowager, of Sandside. 1867 Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) I. vi. 411 A marriage with their dowager aunt. |
† b. Loosely used. (In Drayton, app. = ‘lady holding in dower’.) Obs.
| 1611 Speed Theat. Gt. Brit. xxxii. (1614) 63/1 Kathren of Spaine, wife and dowager to K. Henry the eight. a 1631 Drayton Eng. Hist. Ep., As Charles his daughter..As Henry's Queen..By France's conquest and by England's oath, You are the true made dowager of both. |
c. famil. An elderly lady of dignified demeanour.
| 1870 Dickens E. Drood iii, Like the legendary ghost of a dowager in silken skirts. 1881 ‘Rita’ My Lady Coquette v, Anxious dowagers are giving longing glances at the provision-basket. |
d. transf. and fig. Of men or animals.
| 1819 Metropolis III. 71 Our..dowager generals, those who, from old men are scarcely better than old women. 1840 Lady C. Bury Hist. of Flirt xiv, A couple of stout post⁓horses were..preferable to their own quiet dowagers. |
Hence (nonce-wds.) ˈdowager v. intr., to play the dowager; ˈdowagerdom, ˈdowagerhood, ˈdowagerism, ˈdowagership; dowaˈgerian, ˈdowagerish, ˈdowagerly adjs.
| 1733–4 Mrs. Delany Autobiog & Corr. (1861) I. 426 Bury him decently in Westminster, and enjoy the dowagership most gallantly. 1825 J. Jekyll Let. 6 Oct. in Corr. (1894) 150, I dowager daily in the carriage. 1843 Tait's Mag. X. 286 Sober dowagerly entertainments. 1848 Thackeray Van. Fair xlvi, Mansions that have passed away into Dowagerism. 1891 Blackw. Mag. CXLIX. 553/1 The well-preserved dowagerhood of Hampton Court. |