| 释义 |
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’.)
1530Palsgr. Ep. to Hen. VIII, Your..most entirely beloved suster quene Mary douagier of France. 1542Fabyan's Chron. Contn. vii. 700 In January dyed lady Katherine princes dowager [printed -yer]. 1558Forrest Grysilde Sec. (1875) 93 They gaue her to name Ladye Douager. 1590Shakes. 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. a1674Clarendon Hist. Reb. xiii. §154 The two Dowagers, his mother and grandmother, having great joyntures out of the estate. 1701Lond. Gaz. No. 3745/2 She was accompanied by the Dutchess of Savoy, her Mother, and by the Dutchess-Dowager. 1754Hume Hist. Eng. I. xii. 277 He espoused Eleanor, dowager of William Earl of Pembroke. 1809Naval Chron. XXII. 276 Mrs. Innes, Dowager, of Sandside. 1867Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) I. vi. 411 A marriage with their dowager aunt.
†b. Loosely used. (In Drayton, app. = ‘lady holding in dower’.) Obs.
1611Speed Theat. Gt. Brit. xxxii. (1614) 63/1 Kathren of Spaine, wife and dowager to K. Henry the eight. a1631Drayton 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.
1870Dickens 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.
1819Metropolis III. 71 Our..dowager generals, those who, from old men are scarcely better than old women. 1840Lady 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.
1733–4Mrs. Delany Autobiog & Corr. (1861) I. 426 Bury him decently in Westminster, and enjoy the dowagership most gallantly. 1825J. Jekyll Let. 6 Oct. in Corr. (1894) 150, I dowager daily in the carriage. 1843Tait's Mag. X. 286 Sober dowagerly entertainments. 1848Thackeray Van. Fair xlvi, Mansions that have passed away into Dowagerism. 1891Blackw. Mag. CXLIX. 553/1 The well-preserved dowagerhood of Hampton Court. |