reverse dowry

• reverse-dowry

reverse dowry (plural reverse dowries)

1. A sum of money or other valuables paid by a bridegroom or on his behalf to the family of the bride, in some cultures.
   • 1978, Carol Meyers, "The Roots of Restriction: Women in Early Israel," The Biblical Archaeologist, vol. 41, no. 3, p. 98:

     This bride-gift, a kind of reverse dowry, indicates that grooms had to compete for relatively few brides.

   • 1991, Ned Zeman, "Houston's Sleazy Saga," Newsweek, 16 Sep.:

     Doug's mother, Lynn Sakowitz Wyatt, reveals that before her father, Bernard, would allow her to marry Coastal Corp. chairman Oscar Wyatt, he negotiated a reverse dowry giving him $1 million in corporate stock.

• bride price