Widow
['wɪdəʊ] or ['wɪdo]
Definition
(noun.) a woman whose husband is dead especially one who has not remarried.
(verb.) cause to be without a spouse; 'The war widowed many women in the former Yugoslavia'.
Typed by Geraldine--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) A woman who has lost her husband by death, and has not married again; one living bereaved of a husband.
(a.) Widowed.
(v. t.) To reduce to the condition of a widow; to bereave of a husband; -- rarely used except in the past participle.
(v. t.) To deprive of one who is loved; to strip of anything beloved or highly esteemed; to make desolate or bare; to bereave.
(v. t.) To endow with a widow's right.
(v. t.) To become, or survive as, the widow of.
Checker: Sigmund
Definition
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.
Checked by Jacques
Unserious Contents or Definition
To dream that you are a widow, foretells that you will have many troubles through malicious persons. For a man to dream that he marries a widow, denotes he will see some cherished undertaking crumble down in disappointment.
Typist: Ruben
Unserious Contents or Definition
n. A pathetic figure that the Christian world has agreed to take humorously although Christ's tenderness towards widows was one of the most marked features of his character.
Editor: Trudy
Unserious Contents or Definition
The wife of a golfer during the open season, unless she golfs, too. In that event the children are golf orphans.
Edited by Edward
Examples
- I bemoaned my desolate widow and fatherless children. Jonathan Swift. Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World.
- What became of Captain Osborne's widow? William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- It proved to be a well-known and respected widow of the neighbourhood, of a standing which can only be expressed by the word genteel. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- I was lodging with a comical old widow, who had formerly been my sister Fanny's nurse when she was quite a child. Harriette Wilson. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson.
- She's well to do now, and a widow. Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit.
- I am sorry to grieve you, pursued the widow; but you are so young, and so little acquainted with men, I wished to put you on your guard. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- His admiration of the widow increased as she spoke. Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- He drove his curricle; he drank his claret; he played his rubber; he told his Indian stories, and the Irish widow consoled and flattered him as usual. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- A widow lady kept the house; she had a daughter, and a maidservant, and a journeyman who attended the warehouse, but lodged abroad. Benjamin Franklin. Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin.
- At all events, Tom kicked the very tall man out at the front door half an hour later, and married the widow a month after. Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- He visited the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and kept himself unspotted from the world. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- Widows, gentlemen, are not usually timorous, as my uncle used to say. Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- Some widows can guard against the wounds their children give them by turning their hearts to another husband and beginning life again. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- The splendid opening of the story of Islam collapses suddenly into this squalid dispute and bickering of heirs and widows. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- Oh, governesses--or widows. Edith Wharton. The House of Mirth.
- Here, too, the bride's aunt and next relation; a widowed female of a Medusa sort, in a stoney cap, glaring petrifaction at her fellow-creatures. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- They reached the cottage where Susan's widowed mother lived. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
- If I ever get to heaven it won't be for being a good son to a widowed mother; I say no more. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- All his widowed mother could spare had been spent in qualifying him for his profession. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- The stars came out, shedding their ineffectual glimmerings on the light-widowed earth. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
Inputed by Delia