widow — English Dictionary

Noun

1. A person whose spouse is absent: A person who has lost a spouse and hasn't remarried: A woman whose spouse (traditionally husband) has died (and who has not remarried); a woman in relation to her late spouse; feminine of widower.

2. A person whose spouse is absent: A person who has lost a spouse and hasn't remarried: Any person whose spouse has died (and who has not remarried).

   Usage

   • Uncommon

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   Now that he is a widow, he tries to win Olivia back through the songs and the music that brought them together all those years ago, leaving Olivia torn between moving forward with Josh or falling into the arms of the man she truly loves.

3. A person whose spouse is absent: A woman whose husband is often away pursuing a hobby, career, etc.

   Usage

   • broadly
   • Humorous
   • In compounds
   • Informal
   • often
   • sarcastic

   Examples

   My aunt is a football widow in the fall and a basketball widow in the winter and early spring.

   I had been feeling like a bowling-alley widow, but knew he loved the game, so I suggested we join a mixed league.

   More examples (1)

   And how many betting widows do I see at the hospital, who hardly see their husbands while the betting shops are open!

4. An additional hand of playing cards dealt face-down in some card games, to be used by the highest bidder.

   Synonyms

   kitty

5. A single line of type that ends a paragraph but is separated from it by being carried over to the next page or column.

   Antonyms

   orphan

   Narrower terms

   runt

6. Any venomous spider of the genus Latrodectus (called "widows" because of the practice of sexual cannibalism observed among many of these species).

Verb

1. To make a widow or widower of someone; to cause the death of the spouse of.

   Usage

   • Transitive

2. To strip of anything valued.

   Usage

   • Figurative
   • Transitive

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   Sleep, gentle winds, as he sleeps now, My friend, the brother of my love. My Arthur! whom I shall not see ⁠Till all my widow’d race be run; ⁠Dear as the mother to the son, More than my brothers are to me.

3. To endow with a widow's right.

   Usage

   • Obsolete
   • Transitive

4. To be widow to.

   Usage

   • Obsolete
   • Transitive

Noun

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

   Synonyms

   widow woman

   Broader terms

   womanadult female

Verb

1. cause to be without a spouse

   Broader terms

   leaveleave behind

   Examples

   The war widowed many women in the former Yugoslavia