Dower (Latin: dotarium, donatio propter nuptias; French: douaire, Dutch: weduwgift, German: Wittum) is a provision accorded by law, but traditionally by a husband or his family, to a wife for her support in the event that she should survive her husband (i.e., become a widow). It was settled on the bride by agreement at the time of the wedding, or provided by law. ("Settled" here refers to a gift into trust.)

The dower grew out of the Germanic practice of bride price (Old English weotuma) which was given over to a bride's family well in advance for arranging the marriage, but during the early Middle Ages, was given directly to the wife instead. However, in popular parlance, the term may be used for a life interest in property settled by a husband on his wife at any time, not just at the wedding. The verb is to dower (dower, dowers, dowered).

In popular usage, the term dower may be confused with:

Being for the widow and being accorded by law, dower differs essentially from a conventional marriage portion such as the English dowry (cf. Roman law dos, French dot, German Mitgift).

Jaimy Gordon (born July 4, 1944) is an American writer. Her fourth novel, Lord of Misrule, published by McPherson & Co., won the 2010 National Book Award for Fiction.

She was born in Baltimore, graduated from Antioch College in 1966, received an M.A. in English from Brown University in 1972, and earned Doctor of Arts in Creative Writing in 1975, also from Brown. She lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where she teaches in the MFA program of Western Michigan University. She is author of the underground fantasy classic Shamp of the City-Solo.

David William "Dai" Dower MBE (born 20 June 1933), former British, Empire and European Flyweight boxing champion, is one of the most successful Welsh boxers of all time.

After becoming ABA Flyweight Champion Dower was selected for the team of Great Britain at the 1952 Summer Olympics in the boxing squad, recording victories over Abdelamid Boutefnouchet of France (3-0) and Leslie Donovan Perera Handunge of Ceylon (3-0) before finally losing to Russian boxer Anatoly Bulakov, the holder of the Russian and European titles, 1-2.

In 1953 Dower turned professional and in he made his professional debut at Maindy Arena in Cardiff against Vernon John. Dower won by technical knockout. Dower then beat Ron Hughes in two rounds before he was taken the distance for the first time, opposing the vastly more experienced Preston fighter Colin Clitheroe. Clitheroe had lost three of twenty two fights, mostly at bantamweight, but lost to Dower by points in a six round bout. With another four wins to his name, including two over Jimmy Roche, Dower faced Clitheroe again, this time stopping him in round five.

Melissa "Missy" Morrison Higgins (born 19 August 1983) is an Australian pop singer-songwriter, musician and actress. Her No. 1 albums in Australia are The Sound of White (2004) and On a Clear Night (2007), and her Top Ten singles are "Scar", "The Special Two", "Steer" and "Where I Stood". From a musical family in Melbourne, she played piano by age six and sang at twelve. While boarding at Geelong Grammar School, she wrote a song for an assignment which was then entered into the national Unearthed radio competition for unsigned artists. Higgins won and signed recording contracts with Eleven and Warner Bros. After taking time off, backpacking in Europe, she recorded her first album The Sound of White, which was released in 2004. The album, and its first single, "Scar" both went to No. 1 on the relevant Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Charts. Its second single, "The Special Two", went to No. 2. Higgins was nominated for five ARIA Music Awards that year and won 'Best Pop Release' for "Scar". In 2005 she was nominated for seven more awards and won five. She won her seventh ARIA in 2007.