widow

Pluralwidows

Formswidows, widowing, widowed

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A woman whose spouse has died and who has not since remarried.

   The widow received a small pension after her husband's death.

   Several widows in the parish relied on the charity of their neighbors.

   Note

   A word English has carried since Old English widuwe, traced through Germanic to an Indo-European form possibly built on a root meaning "to separate, divide". That may be the same root behind wood. It names a relation as well as a status: a woman is someone's widow (his widow, the senator's widow), and widower is its masculine counterpart.

2. 2
   nounrarecountable

   Any person, regardless of gender, whose spouse has died and who has not remarried.

   The pension office treats every widow alike, whether they lost a husband or a wife.

   He had been a widow for two years before he felt ready to date again.

   Note

   Applied to a man, widow is uncommon. Widower remains the usual word, so the neutral use can sound pointed or unexpected. It does surface in contemporary writing, as in Traciy Reyes's 2016 piece on the Hallmark film The Wedding March: "Now that he is a widow, he tries to win Olivia back." When in doubt, use widower for men.

3. 3
   nouncolloquialhumoroussarcasticcountablein compounds

   A woman whose husband is frequently absent because of a hobby, sport, or career.

   Every racing season she became a widow to her husband's motorbikes.

   The golf widows planned their own weekend trips while their husbands hit the course.

   Note

   Almost always the second half of a compound that names the rival: football widow, basketball widow, bowling-alley widow. The tone is humorous and sometimes sarcastic. It borrows absence from the bereaved sense and drops the death. Emily Parry's 1988 article "For a Bowling Widow, a Split Isn't Just Two Lonely Pins" shows how readily it invites wordplay.

4. 4
   verbtransitive

   To cause someone to lose their husband or wife through death, leaving them a widow or widower.

   The epidemic widowed many young wives across the region.

   Years of dangerous work could widow her without any warning.

   Similarbereave

5. 5
   nouncountable

   Any venomous spider of the genus Latrodectus, so called because the female often eats the male after mating.

   The hiker was bitten by a widow while clearing brush along the trail.

   Several widows had nested beneath the old porch steps.

6. 6
   nouncountable

   An additional hand of playing cards dealt face-down, to be used by the highest bidder.

   After taking the widow, he discarded two weak cards from his hand.

   The strongest bid earns the right to use the widow.

   Similarkitty

   Note

   A card-table word for the cards dealt to no one. They lie face-down until the auction ends. Then the winning bidder picks them up and may exchange cards to strengthen a hand before play begins. Kitty is the other common name for the same pile, and players speak of taking the widow.

7. 7
   nouncountable

   A single line that ends a paragraph but becomes separated from it, carried over to the top of the next page or column.

   The typesetter adjusted the spacing to remove a widow at the chapter's end.

   Several widows appeared once the text reflowed into narrower columns.

   Oppositeorphan

   Note

   Typesetters treat widows as faults to remove, usually by adjusting spacing so the stray line rejoins its paragraph. The paired term is orphan, and the two are easily confused. A widow is a paragraph's last line left alone at the top of a page. An orphan is its first line left alone at the foot. The widow is the one left behind at the end.

8. 8
   verbfigurativelytransitive

   To strip someone or something of everything that is valued.

   The fire widowed the town of its oldest landmark.

   Repeated defeats can widow a community of its spirit.

   Similarrob, deprive, strip, bereave

   Note

   Bereavement becomes a metaphor: what is lost need not be a spouse, only something cherished. Tennyson's In Memoriam (1850) uses it of a friendship, imagining the years without his friend Arthur as "my widow'd race," a course run bereft. In prose the verb usually takes of before the thing lost: a town widowed of its oldest landmark.

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