# widow

Pronunciation: say "WID-oh" US /ˈwɪd.oʊ/, UK /ˈwɪd.əʊ/

## Noun

1. A woman whose spouse has died and who has not since remarried.
   - Simple: A woman whose husband has died and who has not married again.
   - _The widow received a small pension after her husband's death._
   - _Several widows in the parish relied on the charity of their neighbors._
3. A woman whose husband is frequently absent because of a hobby, sport, or career. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: A woman whose husband is so often away at a hobby or job that she is left alone.
   - _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._
5. Any venomous spider of the genus Latrodectus, so called because the female often eats the male after mating.
   - Simple: A small, very poisonous spider. The female sometimes 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. An additional hand of playing cards dealt face-down, to be used by the highest bidder.
   - Simple: An extra set of cards placed face-down for the winning bidder to use.
   - _After taking the widow, he discarded two weak cards from his hand._
   - _The strongest bid earns the right to use the widow._
7. A single line that ends a paragraph but becomes separated from it, carried over to the top of the next page or column.
   - Simple: A paragraph's last line when it gets pushed alone 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._

## Verb

4. To cause someone to lose their husband or wife through death, leaving them a widow or widower.
   - Simple: To make someone a widow or widower by causing their husband or wife to die.
   - _The epidemic widowed many young wives across the region._
   - _Years of dangerous work could widow her without any warning._
8. To strip someone or something of everything that is valued.
   - Simple: To take away from someone everything that they value.
   - _The fire widowed the town of its oldest landmark._
   - _Repeated defeats can widow a community of its spirit._

## Noun

2. Any person, regardless of gender, whose spouse has died and who has not remarried. *(rare)*
   - Simple: A person of any gender whose spouse has died and who has not married again.
   - _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._

## Verb

9. To endow someone with the legal rights belonging to a widow. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To give someone the legal rights that a widow has.
   - _The settlement widowed her with lands enough to live on comfortably._
   - _The lord agreed to widow his wife with the manor's revenues._
10. To be the widow of a particular man. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To be the widow of a certain person.
   - _For decades she widowed the merchant who had died at sea._
   - _Many a wife must widow a husband lost to war._

## Origin

This comes from Middle English 'widwe', from Old English 'widuwe', going back through Proto-Germanic to a Proto-Indo-European root, possibly one meaning 'to separate, split, divide'. It has many cognates, including German 'Witwe', Dutch 'weduwe', Latin 'vidua', and Sanskrit 'vidhavā'.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/widow (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).