widow

English

Etymology

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”).

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈwɪd.əʊ/
  • (General American) IPA(key): /ˈwɪd.oʊ/
    • Audio (US):(file)
  • Hyphenation: wid‧ow
  • Rhymes: -ɪdəʊ

Noun

widow (plural widows)

  1. A person whose spouse is absent:
    1. A person who has lost a spouse and not remarried:
      2. A woman whose spouse (traditionally husband) has died (and who has not remarried); a woman in relation to her late spouse; feminine of widower.
      3. (uncommon) Any person whose spouse has died (and who has not remarried).
    2. (by extension, informal, often humorous or sarcastic, in combination) A woman whose husband is often away pursuing a hobby, career, etc.
      My aunt is a football widow in the fall and a basketball widow in the winter and early spring.
      • 1988 November 27, Emily Parry, “For a Bowling Widow, a Split Isn't Just Two Lonely Pins”, in New York Times:
        I had been feeling like a bowling-alley widow, but knew he loved the game, so I suggested we join a mixed league.
      • 2010, Theodore Dalrymple, “There’s No Damned Merit In It”, in Life at the Bottom, published 1997:
        And how many betting widows do I see at the hospital, who hardly see their husbands while the betting shops are open!
  2. (card games) An additional hand of playing cards dealt face-down in some card games, to be used by the highest bidder.
    Synonym: kitty
  3. (typography) A single line of type that ends a paragraph but is separated from it by being carried over to the next page or column.
    Antonym: orphan
    Hyponym: runt
  5. Any venomous spider of the genus Latrodectus (called "widows" because of the practice of sexual cannibalism observed among many of these species).

Synonyms

  • (woman whose spouse has died): widowess
  • (man whose spouse has died): widower

Derived terms

Translations

single line of type carried over to the next page
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Translations to be checked

Verb

widow (third-person singular simple present widows, present participle widowing, simple past and past participle widowed)

  1. (transitive) To make a widow or widower of someone; to cause the death of the spouse of.
  2. (transitive, figurative) To strip of anything valued.
    • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto IX”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC:
      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. (transitive, obsolete) To endow with a widow's right.
  4. (transitive, obsolete) To be widow to.

Translations

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