widow

wid·ow

W0149100 (wĭd′ō)n.1. A woman whose spouse has died and who has not remarried.2. Informal A woman whose spouse is often away pursuing a sport or hobby.3. An additional hand of cards dealt face down in some card games, to be used by the highest bidder. Also called kitty¹.4. Printing a. A single, usually short line of type, as one ending a paragraph, carried over to the top of the next page or column.b. A short line of type at the bottom of a page, column, or paragraph.tr.v. wid·owed, wid·ow·ing, wid·ows To make a widow or widower of.

[Middle English widewe, from Old English widuwe.]

widow

(ˈwɪdəʊ) n1. (Law) a woman who has survived her spouse, esp one who has not remarried2. (usually with a modifier) informal a woman whose spouse is often away from home indulging in a sport, etc: a golf widow. 3. (Printing, Lithography & Bookbinding) printing a short line at the end of a paragraph, esp one that occurs as the top line of a page or column. Compare orphan³4. (Card Games) (in some card games) an additional hand or set of cards exposed on the tablevb (tr; usually passive) 5. to cause to become a widow or a widower6. to deprive of something valued or desirable[Old English widuwe; related to German Witwe, Latin vidua (feminine of viduus deprived), Sanskrit vidhavā] ˈwidowhood n

wid•ow

(ˈwɪd oʊ)

n. 1. a woman who has lost her husband by death and has not remarried. 2. (in cards) an additional hand or part of a hand, as one dealt to the table. 3. a. a short last line of a paragraph, esp. one less than half of the full measure or one consisting of only a single word. b. (esp. in word processing) the last line of a paragraph when it is carried over to the top of the following page. Compare orphan (def. 4). 4. a woman often left alone because her husband devotes his free time to a hobby or sport: a golf widow. v.t. 5. to make (someone) a widow. 6. to deprive of anything cherished or needed. 7. Obs. to survive as the widow of. [before 900; Middle English wid(e)we, Old English widuwe, wydewe, c. Old Saxon widowa, Old High German wituwa, Gothic widuwo, Latin vidua, Skt vidhavā]

widow

widower">widower1. 'widow'

You say that a woman is a widow when her husband has died and she has not married again.

I had been a widow for five years.

When a man has died, you can refer to his wife as his widow.

His property had been left to his widow.He visited the widow of an old school friend.2. 'widower'

You say that a man is a widower when his wife has died and he has not married again.

He's a widower in his late forties.

When a woman has died, you can refer to her husband as her widower.

Ten years later her widower remarried.The ceremony was attended by the widower of the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Carol Shields.

widow

Past participle: widowed
Gerund: widowing

Imperative
widow
widow

Present
I widow
you widow
he/she/it widows
we widow
you widow
they widow

Preterite
I widowed
you widowed
he/she/it widowed
we widowed
you widowed
they widowed

Present Continuous
I am widowing
you are widowing
he/she/it is widowing
we are widowing
you are widowing
they are widowing

Present Perfect
I have widowed
you have widowed
he/she/it has widowed
we have widowed
you have widowed
they have widowed

Past Continuous
I was widowing
you were widowing
he/she/it was widowing
we were widowing
you were widowing
they were widowing

Past Perfect
I had widowed
you had widowed
he/she/it had widowed
we had widowed
you had widowed
they had widowed

Future
I will widow
you will widow
he/she/it will widow
we will widow
you will widow
they will widow

Future Perfect
I will have widowed
you will have widowed
he/she/it will have widowed
we will have widowed
you will have widowed
they will have widowed

Future Continuous
I will be widowing
you will be widowing
he/she/it will be widowing
we will be widowing
you will be widowing
they will be widowing

Present Perfect Continuous
I have been widowing
you have been widowing
he/she/it has been widowing
we have been widowing
you have been widowing
they have been widowing

Future Perfect Continuous
I will have been widowing
you will have been widowing
he/she/it will have been widowing
we will have been widowing
you will have been widowing
they will have been widowing

Past Perfect Continuous
I had been widowing
you had been widowing
he/she/it had been widowing
we had been widowing
you had been widowing
they had been widowing

Conditional
I would widow
you would widow
he/she/it would widow
we would widow
you would widow
they would widow

Past Conditional
I would have widowed
you would have widowed
he/she/it would have widowed
we would have widowed
you would have widowed
they would have widowed

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	widow - a woman whose husband is dead especially one who has not remarriedwidow womandowager - a widow holding property received from her deceased husbandwar widow - a woman whose husband has died in waradult female, woman - an adult female person (as opposed to a man); "the woman kept house while the man hunted"
Verb	1.	widow - cause to be without a spouse; "The war widowed many women in the former Yugoslavia"leave behind, leave - be survived by after one's death; "He left six children"; "At her death, she left behind her husband and 11 cats"

Translations

寡妇丧偶

widow

(ˈwidəu) noun a woman whose husband is dead. My brother's widow has married again.寡妇 verb to cause to become a widow or widower. She/He was widowed in 1943.丧偶ˈwidower noun a man whose wife is dead. 鳏夫

widow

→ 寡妇zhCN

widow

golf widow

A woman whose husband frequently absents himself from home so as to go and play golf. I thought I would finally see more of John after his retirement, but I became a golf widow instead.See also: golf, widow

grass widow

1. A woman who lives apart from her spouse for long periods due to a job location or other circumstances. The politician's wife has become a grass widow ever since he started campaigning for office.2. A woman who is divorced, separated, or estranged from or abandoned by her spouse. If you never get married, you'll never have to worry about becoming a grass widow.3. A mistress who is abandoned by her lover. The town referred to Judy as a grass widow after the man she was seeing decided to return to his wife.4. An unmarried mother. When they discovered that Maria had had her son out of wedlock, they cruelly called her a grass widow.See also: grass, widow

widow's mite

A small monetary contribution made by one who is poor. Edna hardly has any money, and she still gives the church a widow's mite.See also: mite

widow's peak

A point in the hairline in the middle of one's forehead. Now known to be a genetic trait, it was once believed to indicate early widowhood. My sister has a widow's peak. Does this haircut make my widow's peak too noticeable?See also: peak

widow's cruse

A supply source that seems as if it is or should be meager or limited but ends up being or seeming limitless. Despite claims that the company needed to scale back pay for all its employees, the CEO's salary seems to be drawn from a widow's cruse, as it has only ever gone up in recent years. Education is the only true widow's cruse. The benefits gleaned by children and adults at any level of education is many times what must be put into the system.See also: cruse

widow's weeds

The black dress and veil traditionally worn by a widow while mourning the death of her husband. The formidable matriarch remained in her widow's weeds for years after the death of her husband, the late Don Salvatore.See also: weed

grass widow

a woman abandoned by her husband. (The origin of this is not clear.) Jane's husband isn't dead, but she's a widow just the same—a grass widow. Bill ran off and left Mary a grass widow.See also: grass, widow

grass widow

A woman who is separated from her husband, either by divorce or temporary absence. For example, She's a grass widow these days, with Herb traveling to golf tournaments all over the country . The expression dates from the 16th century, when it referred to the mother of an illegitimate child, grass presumably alluding to the open-air setting of the child's conception. See also: grass, widow

a widow's cruse

an apparently small supply that proves inexhaustible. In the Bible, 1 Kings 17 tells the story of the widow to whom Elijah was sent for sustenance. When he asked her for bread, she replied that all she had for herself and her son was ‘an handful of meal in a barrel and a little oil in a cruse’ (a cruse was a small earthenware pot or jar). Elijah told her to make him a cake from these ingredients and then to make food for herself and her son as God had decreed that the containers should be continually replenished.See also: cruse

a widow's mite

a small monetary contribution from someone who is poor. This phrase comes from a story recounted in Mark 12:41–4. A poor widow donated two mites (coins of very low value) to the treasury of the Temple in Jerusalem, a sum which constituted all the money she possessed. Witnessing this act, Jesus told his disciples that she had given more than the richest contributor because she had given all that she had.See also: mite

widow-maker

n. a dangerous horse; anything dangerous: a gun, strong alcohol, etc. I call this stuff widow-maker. It’s really strong.

grass widow

A woman temporarily or permanently separated from her husband. Many times during and after the American West was settled, farmers decided that they had enough of such a bleak life, whereupon they left their wives and children. These abandoned women were known as grass widows, left out to grass on the Great Plains. (The phrase is, however, much older. It was first used in 16th-century England to describe women of easy virtue who “slept” on beds of grass instead of mattresses and bed linen.) “Grass widow” came to be applied to the wives of traveling salesmen, professional athletes, and other men who spent much of their year on the road. As that usage became obsolete, similar phrases appeared: golf widow, fishing or hunting widow, and any other sport that claimed their hubby's attention.See also: grass, widow

widow's weeds

Female mourning costume. The word “weed” comes from an Old English word for “garment.” As a phrase to wear widow's weeds simply means to be in mourning. Many cultures have had or still have a custom of wearing distinctive clothing to mark a husband's death. In Victorian England, for example, a widow wore black for the first year and a day, then moved through dark purple and other somber colors to lighter shades. However, the queen who gave her name to the era wore no other color than black after the death of her beloved husband Prince Albert. Many widows in many Mediterranean countries, most notable Greece and southern Italy, wear black for the rest of their lives.See also: weed

widow

wid·ow

widow

wid•ow

widow

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widow

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widow

golf widow

grass widow

widow's mite

widow's peak

widow's cruse

widow's weeds

grass widow

grass widow

a widow's cruse

a widow's mite

widow-maker

grass widow

widow's weeds

widow

widow

What does it mean when you dream about a widow?

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Widow

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WIDOW

widow

Synonyms for widow

noun a woman whose husband is dead especially one who has not remarried

Synonyms

Related Words

verb cause to be without a spouse

Related Words