Definition
“A period of 40 days, particularly The 40-day period during which a widow is entitled to remain in her deceased husband's home while any dower is collected and returned. The 40-day period of isolation required after 1448 at Venice's lazaret to avoid renewed outbreaks of the bubonic plague and identical policies in other locations. A 40-day period formerly imposed by the French king upon warring nobles during which they were forbidden from exacting revenge or continuing to fight.”