What's the difference between cowry and dowry?

Cowry


Definition:

  • (n.) A marine shell of the genus Cypraea.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) It was great: a sort of cryptographic cowrie shell for virtual fish.
  • (2) If one cowrie shell bought a fish, there wasn't any risk that some fisherman would try to corner the market and push the price of fish up in order to become rich.
  • (3) Cowrie shells were a 13th-century medium of exchange: they were a fairly effective currency at a time when there was no risk that people might hoard them in order to speculate on their value rising.
  • (4) It’s an old jetty in the city’s Ikoyi neighbourhood that sticks out into the still waters of Five Cowrie Creek, which separates Lagos Island from the Lekki Peninsula at its westernmost tip.
  • (5) Look out for "groatie-buckies", small cowrie shells often found here.
  • (6) But Bitcoin is just a bunch of people trading cryptographic cowrie shells - but now with internet-speed ability to see instantaneous prices, and with a burgeoning desire to spend it on "real" things.

Dowry


Definition:

  • (n.) A gift; endowment.
  • (n.) The money, goods, or estate, which a woman brings to her husband in marriage; a bride's portion on her marriage. See Note under Dower.
  • (n.) A gift or presents for the bride, on espousal. See Dower.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Opcapita was also handed a £50m dowry to take over the business.
  • (2) However, the most spectacular fundraiser was not the auction room but a wedding, when the ninth duke married the American railroad heiress Consuelo Vanderbilt, securing a gigantic dowry, a fortune in shares and an annual allowance.
  • (3) The concessions he agreed, and the £9.25m "dowry" paid to the Lebedevs to buy it in the form of guaranteed investment for the next 10 months, are testament to O'Reilly's eagerness to sell.
  • (4) When the men have paid the dowry and fulfilled the marriage customs they are entitled to have sexual intercourse with their wives.
  • (5) I wanted to provoke, to make them realise that demanding dowry is no way to respect women.
  • (6) The £40m dowry will be used to refurbish stores as Aeon outlets with the cash helping to preserve employment of Tesco's nearly 1,000 workforce.
  • (7) Alan Clarke, UK economist at BNP Paribas The odd couple: After an intense five-day engagement, the shotgun wedding between the Conservative party and the Liberal Democrats was finally confirmed late last night – albeit with a massive dowry paid up front.
  • (8) The local branch of humanitarian agency Intersos and the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, raised the money to pay back the balance of the dowry – 250,000 ouguiyas (£535) – and applied to a judge for a restraining order against Nafissa’s husband, which was granted.
  • (9) Though prohibited by law since 1961, dowry is ingrained in Indian culture, she said.
  • (10) Many poor families in Yemen marry off young daughters to save on the costs of bringing up a child and earn extra money from the dowry given to the girl.
  • (11) It was owned by Sweden's wealthy Kamprad family, whose patriarch Ingvar founded Ikea , for nearly 20 years, but even their expertise could not revive its fortunes and they paid restructuring firm Hilco a multimillion-pound dowry to take the loss-making business off their hands in December 2009.
  • (12) However, Koushik Chatterjee, the group executive director of Tata Steel, said the Indian company did not provide a dowry as part of the deal to sell its Scunthorpe steelworks to Greybull , and is selling the rest of the business because it cannot afford the running costs.
  • (13) The government’s efforts to persuade Indians not to give or accept a dowry – consisting mainly of stodgy sermons – have proved ineffectual.
  • (14) Recurrent epidemics accounted for 38 per cent of the total mortality experienced by girls enrolled in the Dowry Fund.
  • (15) If a woman manages to obtain a divorce without her husband's consent, she will lose the sum of money (or dowry) that was agreed to at the time of marriage.
  • (16) Contrary to the general belief that girls are unwelcome due to the dowry system, in rural areas additional children were desired by a larger proportion of women with 2 sons than of those with 1 son and 1 daughter.
  • (17) The retailer has been hard hit by the collapse in consumer spending caused by the financial crisis, and French company Kesa paid OpCapita a £50m dowry to take the loss-making chain off its hands just nine months ago.
  • (18) It is one of two public information videos that take aim at the dowry system.
  • (19) Epidemics and mortality in 15th and 16th century Florence, Italy, were investigated by use of records of the government-sponsored Dowry Fund.
  • (20) Based on the real-life story of billionaire Hong Kong shipping tycoon Cecil Chao, who offered a $65m (£40m) dowry to any man who would marry his lesbian daughter, the film is not expected to hit cinemas for several years.

Words possibly related to "cowry"