widowed

1. 1
   adjective

   Left without a spouse because that spouse has died or has gone missing.

   The widowed professor rarely spoke of his late wife.

   She has been widowed twice and raised her family alone.

   Similarbereaved

   Note

   A gender-neutral way to name a state that English otherwise splits in two, covering widow and widower alike. It is not comparable, since no one is more widowed than another. It sits naturally before a noun, as in the widowed bride of Don McLean's American Pie, where pairing it with bride makes the loss come painfully early in a marriage.

2. 2
   verb

   Simple past tense and past participle of widow.

   The long war widowed countless women across the region.

   He was widowed early and never remarried.

   Note

   Behind the participle stands a verb whose subject is the cause of the loss: a war or an illness widows someone. In the passive (he was widowed) it is hard to tell apart from the adjective, and either reading works. The verb also has a figurative use, to strip someone of anything valued. Its older senses, to endow with a widow's right or to be widow to someone, are obsolete.

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