widow Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a woman whose husband is dead especially one who has not remarried
    widow woman.
  2. verb cause to be without a spouse
    • The war widowed many women in the former Yugoslavia

WordNet

Wid"ow noun
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. vidhava; and probably to Skr. vidh to be empty, to lack; cf. Gr. a bachelor. . Cf. Vidual.
Definitions
  1. A woman who has lost her husband by death, and has not married again; one living bereaved of a husband. "A poor widow." Chaucer.
Wid"ow adjective
Definitions
  1. Widowed. "A widow woman." 1 Kings xvii. 9. "This widow lady." Shak.
Wid"ow transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Widowed ; present participle & verbal noun Widowing
Definitions
  1. To reduce to the condition of a widow; to bereave of a husband; -- rarely used except in the past participle.
    Though in thus city he Hath widowed and unchilded many a one, Which to this hour bewail the injury. Shak.
  2. To deprive of one who is loved; to strip of anything beloved or highly esteemed; to make desolate or bare; to bereave.
    The widowed isle, in mourning, Dries up her tears. Dryden.
    Tress of their shriveled fruits Are widowed, dreary storms o'er all prevail. J. Philips.
    Mourn, widowed queen; forgotten Sion, mourn. Heber.
  3. To endow with a widow's right. R. Shak.
  4. To become, or survive as, the widow of. Obs.
    Let me be married to three kings in a forenoon, and widow them all. Shak.

Webster 1913