widow
Americannoun
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a woman who has lost her spouse by death and has not remarried.
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Cards. an additional hand or part of a hand, as one dealt to the table.
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Printing.
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a short last line of a paragraph, especially one less than half of the full measure or one consisting of only a single word.
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the last line of a paragraph when it is carried over to the top of the following page away from the rest of the paragraph.
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a woman often left alone because her husband devotes his free time to a hobby or sport (used in combination).
verb (used with object)
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to make (someone) a widow.
She was widowed by the war.
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to deprive of anything cherished or needed.
A surprise attack widowed the army of its supplies.
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Obsolete.
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to endow with a widow's right.
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to survive as the widow of.
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noun
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a woman who has survived her husband, esp one who has not remarried
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informal (usually with a modifier) a woman whose husband frequently leaves her alone while he indulges in a sport, etc
a golf widow
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printing a short line at the end of a paragraph, esp one that occurs as the top line of a page or column Compare orphan
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(in some card games) an additional hand or set of cards exposed on the table
verb
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to cause to become a widow or a widower
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to deprive of something valued or desirable
Other Word Forms
- widowhood noun
- widowly adjective
Etymology
Origin of widow
First recorded before 900; (noun) Middle English wid(e)we, Old English widuwe, wydewe; cognate with German Witwe, Gothic widuwo, Latin vidua (feminine of viduus “bereaved”), Sanskrit vidhavā “widow”; (verb) Middle English, derivative of the noun
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Changes in tax policy in intervening years allowed widows and widowers to access their spouses’ unused exemptions and now the more generous exemptions make it worth revisiting these trusts.
From Barron's
Positive that her new husband wouldn’t last long, she expected to leave her past as an abandoned wife behind and become the respectable widow, Mrs. Calvin Brown, within days.
From Literature
Mabel, described as active and independent, had lived alone in her bungalow overlooking the Menai Strait since becoming a widow in the 1960s.
From BBC
An online fundraising page to cover Avtar’s funeral expenses and help support his widow and children has drawn several hundred thousand dollars in donations.
From Los Angeles Times
Tracy Morgan stars in Paramount+’s multicam sitcom, a spin-off of CBS’ ‘The Neighborhood,’ and plays a widowed father whose empty nest is disrupted by his adult children’s return.
From Los Angeles Times
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
