Dowager

Empress Dowager Cixi held control in China for forty-seven years.

She was politely described as a redoubtable dowager.

A reclusive dowager owned the pastures across the river, and her farmhands ran beef cattle on them.

“I don't mean all of your friends—only a small proportion—which, however, connects your circle with that deadly, idle, brainless bunch—the insolent chatterers at the opera, the gorged dowagers, the worn-out, passionless men, the enervated matrons of the summer capital, the chlorotic squatters on huge yachts,[…]!”

the Earl and Countess of Whiteacre, and the Earl's mother, the dowager Countess of Whiteacre

Sir George Sitwell, Bt. and Lady Sitwell, and Sir George's mother, the dowager Lady Sitwell

A stately dowager entered the ballroom, and all eyes were upon her.