widowing
SayWID-oh-ingUS/ˈwɪd.oʊ.ɪŋ/UK/ˈwɪd.əʊ.ɪŋ/
- 1Present participle and gerund of widow.
The epidemic was widowing wives faster than the town could bury its dead.
Widowing so many in a single battle left the whole region in mourning.
Note
A transitive form that always takes an object, and the object is the bereaved, not the dead: an epidemic widowing wives, a war widowing a generation. The same -ing form also works as a noun naming the act itself. Beyond bereavement it can mean stripping someone of anything they value. Two older uses, endowing with a widow's right and being widow to someone, are now obsolete.
widowing is a form of widow
widow, verb: To cause someone to lose their husband or wife through death, leaving them a widow or widower. Full entry
- Spelling
- widow → widowing: add -ing
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