as in matron
a dignified usually elderly woman of some rank or authority
the town's dowagers frequently shake their heads over the younger generation
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Recent Examples of dowager
Monti is the foundation’s current director, its one-person advisory panel, its entertainment committee, its auction-house fund-raiser and its dowager guiding light.
—
Laura Rysman, New York Times, 16 Dec. 2023
Thrones pushed the Emmy drama race out of its era of dowager countesses and troubled men and into one where robots and demogorgons could at least have a shot.
—Esther Zuckerman, The Hollywood Reporter, 19 June 2023
From the artists of Washington Square to the dowagers and doormen of the Upper East Side was a cultural distance as great as any trip from Nebraska to New York.
—Jeff MacGregor, Smithsonian Magazine, 22 June 2023
Throughout British history, there have been numerous queens dowager who were not queen mothers, including Joan of Navarre, the second wife of King Henry IV and stepmother to King Henry V, and Katherine Parr, the sixth wife of Henry VIII and stepmother to King Edward VI.
—Town & Country, 4 June 2023
See All Example Sentences for dowager
Laura Rysman, New York Times, 16 Dec. 2023
Thrones pushed the Emmy drama race out of its era of dowager countesses and troubled men and into one where robots and demogorgons could at least have a shot.
—Esther Zuckerman, The Hollywood Reporter, 19 June 2023
From the artists of Washington Square to the dowagers and doormen of the Upper East Side was a cultural distance as great as any trip from Nebraska to New York.
—Jeff MacGregor, Smithsonian Magazine, 22 June 2023
Throughout British history, there have been numerous queens dowager who were not queen mothers, including Joan of Navarre, the second wife of King Henry IV and stepmother to King Henry V, and Katherine Parr, the sixth wife of Henry VIII and stepmother to King Edward VI.
—Town & Country, 4 June 2023
See All Example Sentences for dowager
Recent Examples of Synonyms for dowager
Noun
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But this season, showrunner Mike White pinpoints the willful decadence of the Western world, primarily through Yankees: the husband, wife, and 2.5 children of the Ratliff family, three freewheeling feminist matrons, plus a shady white bachelor and a single black mother.—
Armond White,
National Review,
9 Apr. 2025
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Unexpectedly, a character who seemed to be a stock figure — the dowdy matron, clucking over the girls in her charge — emerges as someone much richer and better, raising the show along with her.—
Jesse Green,
New York Times,
20 Mar. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Dowager.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dowager. Accessed 2 May. 2025.
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