Widow

//ˈwɪd.əʊ// noun, verb, slang

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A person whose spouse is absent:; A person who has lost a spouse and not 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. 2
    a woman whose husband is dead especially one who has not remarried wordnet
  3. 3
    A person whose spouse is absent:; A person who has lost a spouse and not remarried:; Any person whose spouse has died (and who has not remarried). uncommon

    "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."

  4. 4
    A person whose spouse is absent:; A woman whose husband is often away pursuing a hobby, career, etc. broadly, humorous, in-compounds, informal, often, sarcastic

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

  5. 5
    An additional hand of playing cards dealt face-down in some card games, to be used by the highest bidder.
Show 2 more definitions
  1. 6
    A single line of type that ends a paragraph but is separated from it by being carried over to the next page or column.
  2. 7
    Any venomous spider of the genus Latrodectus (called "widows" because of the practice of sexual cannibalism observed among many of these species).
Verb
  1. 1
    To make a widow or widower of someone; to cause the death of the spouse of. transitive
  2. 2
    cause to be without a spouse wordnet
  3. 3
    To strip of anything valued. figuratively, transitive

    "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."

  4. 4
    To endow with a widow's right. obsolete, transitive
  5. 5
    To be widow to. obsolete, transitive

Etymology

Etymology 1

PIE word *dwóh₁ From Middle English widwe, from Old English widuwe, from Proto-West Germanic *widuwā, from Proto-Germanic *widuwǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁widʰéwh₂, possibly from *h₁weydʰh₁-, *widʰ- (“to separate, split, cleave, divide”), whence also wood from Old English widu, wudu. Cognates Cognates include Cimbrian bittaba (“widow”), Dutch weduwe, weeuw (“widow”), German Witwe (“widow”), Vilamovian wytwa (“widow”), Gothic 𐍅𐌹𐌳𐌿𐍅𐍉 (widuwō, “widow”); also Old Irish fedb (“widow”), Welsh gweddw (“widow”), Latin vidua (“widow”), Ancient Greek ἠΐθεος (ēḯtheos, “bachelor”), Albanian ve (“widow, widower”), Belarusian удава́ (udavá, “widow”), Czech, Slovak, and Slovene vdova (“widow”), Polish gdowa, wdowa (“widow”), Russian and Ukrainian вдова́ (vdová, “widow”), Serbo-Croatian udova, у̀дова (“widow”), Central Kurdish بێوە (bêwe, “widow”), Ossetian идӕдз (idæʒ, “widowed”), Persian بیوه (bive, bêva, “widow”), Sanskrit विधवा (vidhavā, “widow”).

Etymology 2

PIE word *dwóh₁ From Middle English widwe, from Old English widuwe, from Proto-West Germanic *widuwā, from Proto-Germanic *widuwǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁widʰéwh₂, possibly from *h₁weydʰh₁-, *widʰ- (“to separate, split, cleave, divide”), whence also wood from Old English widu, wudu. Cognates Cognates include Cimbrian bittaba (“widow”), Dutch weduwe, weeuw (“widow”), German Witwe (“widow”), Vilamovian wytwa (“widow”), Gothic 𐍅𐌹𐌳𐌿𐍅𐍉 (widuwō, “widow”); also Old Irish fedb (“widow”), Welsh gweddw (“widow”), Latin vidua (“widow”), Ancient Greek ἠΐθεος (ēḯtheos, “bachelor”), Albanian ve (“widow, widower”), Belarusian удава́ (udavá, “widow”), Czech, Slovak, and Slovene vdova (“widow”), Polish gdowa, wdowa (“widow”), Russian and Ukrainian вдова́ (vdová, “widow”), Serbo-Croatian udova, у̀дова (“widow”), Central Kurdish بێوە (bêwe, “widow”), Ossetian идӕдз (idæʒ, “widowed”), Persian بیوه (bive, bêva, “widow”), Sanskrit विधवा (vidhavā, “widow”).

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