Definitions for widow
ˈwɪd oʊwid·ow

Princeton's WordNet(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. widow, widow womanverb

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

2. widowverb

   cause to be without a spouse

   "The war widowed many women in the former Yugoslavia"

Wiktionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. widownoun

   A woman whose husband has died (and has not re-married); feminine of widower.

2. widownoun

   A woman whose husband is often away pursuing a sport, etc.

3. widownoun

   A single line of type that ends a paragraph, carried over to the next page or column.

4. widownoun

   type of venomous spider, of the genus Latrodectus

5. widowverb

   To make a widow (or widower) of someone; to cause the death of one's spouse.

6. Etymology: From widewe, from widuwōn.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. WIDOWnoun

   A woman whose husband is dead.

   Etymology: widwa , Sax. weduwe, Dutch; weddw, Welsh; vidua, Latin.

   To take the widow,
   Exasperates, makes mad her sister Gonerill. William Shakespeare.

   Catharine no more
   Shall be call’d queen; but princess dowager,
   And widow to prince Arthur. William Shakespeare, Hen. VIII.

   Our fatherless distress was left unmoan’d,
   Your widow-dolours likewise be unwept. William Shakespeare, Richard III.

   And will she yet debase her eyes on me,
   That cropt the golden prime of this sweet prince,
   And made her widow to a woeful bed. William Shakespeare.

   The barren they more miserable make,
   And from the widow all her comfort take. George Sandys.

   He warns the widow, and her houshold gods
   To seek a refuge in remote abodes. Dryden.

   Who has the paternal power whilst the widow-queen is with child. John Locke.

2. To Widowverb

   Etymology: from widow.

   1. To deprive of a husband.

   In this city he
   Hath widow’d and unchilded many a one,
   Which to this hour bewail the injury. William Shakespeare, Coriolanus.

   Poor ropes you are beguil’d;
   Both you and I; for Romeo is exil’d:
   He made you for a high way to my bed,
   But I, a maid, die maiden widowed. William Shakespeare.

   Thy little care to mend my widow’d nights,
   Has forc’d me to recourse of marriage rites,
   To fill an empty side. Dryden.

   2. To endow with a widow-right.

   For his possessions,
   Although by confiscation they are ours,
   We do instate and widow you withal,
   To buy you a better husband. William Shakespeare.

   3. To strip of any thing good.

   The widow’d isle in mourning
   Dries up her tears. Dryden.

   For him you waste in tears your widow’d hours. Dryden.

   Inclement weather and frosty blasts deface
   The blithsome year, trees of their shrivel’d fruits
   Are widow’d, dreary storms o’er all prevail. Philips.

Webster Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Widownoun

   a woman who has lost her husband by death, and has not married again; one living bereaved of a husband

2. Widowadjective

   widowed

3. Widowverb

   to reduce to the condition of a widow; to bereave of a husband; -- rarely used except in the past participle

4. Widowverb

   to deprive of one who is loved; to strip of anything beloved or highly esteemed; to make desolate or bare; to bereave

5. Widowverb

   to endow with a widow's right

6. Widowverb

   to become, or survive as, the widow of

7. Etymology: [OE. widewe, widwe, AS. weoduwe, widuwe, wuduwe; akin to OFries. widwe, OS. widowa, D. weduwe, G. wittwe, witwe, OHG. wituwa, witawa, Goth. widuw, Russ. udova, OIr. fedb, W. gweddw, L. vidua, Skr. vidhav; and probably to Skr. vidh to be empty, to lack; cf. Gr. "hi`qeos a bachelor. 248. Cf. Vidual.]

Freebase(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Widow

   A widow is a woman whose spouse has died, while a widower is a man whose spouse has died. The state of having lost one's spouse to death is termed widowhood. This term can be used for either sex, at least according to some dictionaries, but the word widowerhood is also listed in some dictionaries. Occasionally, the word viduity is used. The adjective form for either sex is widowed. The treatment of widows around the world varies, but unequal benefits and treatment generally received by widows versus widowers globally has spurred an interest in the issue by human rights activists.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary(5.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. Widow

   wid′ō, n. a woman who has lost her husband by death.—v.t. to bereave of a husband: to strip of anything valued: (Shak.) to endow with a widow's right: to be widow to.—ns. Wid′ow-bench, a widow's share of her husband's estate besides her jointure; Wid′ow-bewitched′, a grass-widow; Wid′ow-bird, a corruption of Whydah-bird; Wid′ower, a man whose wife is dead; Wid′owerhood; Wid′owhood, state of being a widow, or (rarely) of being a widower: (Shak.) a widow's right; Wid′ow-hun′ter, one who seeks to marry a widow for her money; Wid′ow-mā′ker, one who bereaves women of their husbands; Wid′ow's-cham′ber, the apparel and bedroom furniture of the widow of a London freeman, to which she was entitled; Wid′ow-wail, a dwarf shrub with pink, sweet-scented flowers, native to Spain and southern France.—Widow's lawn, a fine thin muslin; Widow's man, a fictitious person; Widow's silk, a silk fabric with dull surface, for mournings; Widow's weeds, the mourning dress of a widow. [A.S. widwe, wuduwe; Ger. wittwe, L. vidua, bereft of a husband, Sans. vidhavā.]

The Foolish Dictionary, by Gideon Wurdz(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. WIDOW

   The wife of a golfer during the open season, unless she golfs, too. In that event the children are golf orphans.

Matched Categories

1. • Leave

British National Corpus

1. Nouns Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'widow' in Nouns Frequency: #1830

How to pronounce widow?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say widow in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of widow in Chaldean Numerology is: 6

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of widow in Pythagorean Numerology is: 2

Examples of widow in a Sentence

1. Charles Lichtman:

   Our client is a 78-year-old widow, whose UBS broker put all of her money into one investment.

2. Julian Fellowes:

   [Society] could turn a blind eye to a widow having an affair.

3. John Berlinski:

   It's no secret that Disney is releasing films like Black Widow directly onto Disney + to increase subscribers and thereby boost the company's stock price — and that it's hiding behind Covid-19 as a pretext to do so, but ignoring the contracts of the artists responsible for the success of its films in furtherance of this short-sighted strategy violates their rights and we look forward to proving as much in court.

4. Steven Soderbergh:

   That was something we were going to do well before the nominations came out -- we talked about that in January. It's our belief -- that I think is not unfounded -- that actors' speeches tend to be more dramatic than producers' speeches. And so we thought it might be fun to mix it up, especially if people didn't know that was coming, so that was always part of the plan. And then when the nominations came out and there was even the possibility that Chadwick could win posthumously, our feeling was if he were to win and his widow were to speak on his behalf, there would be nowhere to go after that. So we stuck with it.

5. Laura Linney:

   She's a war widow from that period of time and the impact that the war has on everyone in this film is the sort of unspoken earthquake underneath the story.

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