widow

American  

[wid-oh] / ˈwɪd oʊ /

noun

• widows
  plural

1. a woman who has lost her spouse by death and has not remarried.

2. Cards. an additional hand or part of a hand, as one dealt to the table.

3. Printing.

   1. a short last line of a paragraph, especially one less than half of the full measure or one consisting of only a single word.

   2. the last line of a paragraph when it is carried over to the top of the following page away from the rest of the paragraph.

4. a woman often left alone because her husband devotes his free time to a hobby or sport (used in combination).

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verb (used with object)

widowed, widowing

1. to make (someone) a widow.

   She was widowed by the war.

2. to deprive of anything cherished or needed.

   A surprise attack widowed the army of its supplies.

3. Obsolete.

   1. to endow with a widow's right.

   2. to survive as the widow of.

widow British  

/ ˈwɪdəʊ /

noun

1. a woman who has survived her husband, esp one who has not remarried

2. informal (usually with a modifier) a woman whose husband frequently leaves her alone while he indulges in a sport, etc

   a golf widow

3. printing a short line at the end of a paragraph, esp one that occurs as the top line of a page or column Compare orphan

4. (in some card games) an additional hand or set of cards exposed on the table

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verb

1. to cause to become a widow or a widower

2. to deprive of something valued or desirable

widow Idioms  

1. see grass widow.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• widowhood
  noun
• widowly
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• widows
  plural

Etymology

Origin of widow

First recorded before 900; (noun) Middle English wid(e)we, Old English widuwe, wydewe; cognate with German Witwe, Gothic widuwo, Latin vidua (feminine of viduus “bereaved”), Sanskrit vidhavā “widow”; (verb) Middle English, derivative of the noun

Explanation

A widow is a woman whose husband has died. If your uncle dies, your aunt will become a widow. If a person's spouse dies, that person is referred to as either a widow or — in the case of a man whose wife dies — a widower. In most cases, people stop using the word widow if the woman marries again. Back in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, it was common to use widow as a prefix to a woman's name, instead of "Mrs." The Indo-European root word of widow means "be empty."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

widow widows widowed widowing

PC Harper's widow, Lissie Harper, has been among a growing number calling for Cole and Bowers to be denied early release from prison.

From BBC ● Aug. 7, 2026

In Syria's first post-Assad parliament, women lawmakers stand out more for their diversity than their numbers: a famous actress, a Christian engineer, a Kurdish leader and the widow of a hardline Islamist commander.

From Barron's ● Aug. 7, 2026

Shayna Aspinwall, the widow of slain math teacher and football coach Richard Aspinwall, 39, called Gray a “pathetic excuse for a father.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026

If no one is listed, funds will be paid out to the widow.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 2026

“He had such beautiful eyes,” the widow murmured.

From "The Unseen Guest" by Maryrose Wood

Ambrositsch, for example, is proud that her heuriger brings together "19-year-old hipsters and 91-year-old widows" at the same table.

From Barron's ● Jul. 26, 2026

In many cases, those women were widows appointed by governors or chosen by voters to take over their deceased husbands’ seats.

From Slate ● Jul. 24, 2026

Thousands of widows and widowers have been short-changed of their Social Security payments as a result of blunders by the Social Security Administration, a government watchdog has revealed.

From MarketWatch ● May 1, 2026

Some of the most philanthropic billionaires are the ex-wives and widows of famous male billionaires.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 21, 2026

Most of the mourners were old widows for whom funerals were a form of entertainment.

From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides

Katja, a widowed cleaning lady, lives with her 26-year-old daughter, Ines, and her slightly younger son, Mario.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026

Mercury, a large Los Angeles-based insurer, charged the highest differential, though it offered lower rates to widowed motorists with 34 or more years of driving experience.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026

Most were disabled or chronically ill; unemployed or retired; widowed; or living alone.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026

Social Security-benefit rules favor married individuals and are a disadvantage for divorced, prematurely widowed and lifelong single older adults, according to a study in The Gerontologist, an academic journal focused on aging.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 30, 2026

Antonina Bondareva, the young widowed pilot in the 125th Guards who’d left her toddler with her husband’s family, had to struggle after the war to get her sister-in-law to give back her now seven-year-old daughter.

From "A Thousand Sisters" by Elizabeth Wein

In 2015 she became a symbol of heartbreaking grief when Goldberg died while working out on vacation, widowing her with two children as she continued to help run one of the world’s best-known companies.

From Seattle Times ● Jun. 1, 2022

Compared with other singletons, people who were single as a result of divorce or widowing had a three times and six times greater risk, respectively.

From Time Magazine Archive

The days that followed the widowing rites passed strangely for Dorama.

From The Outcaste by Penny, F. E.

And now he learnt that not only had she thwarted his schemes against Monmouth, but had deprived him of the ardently sought felicity of widowing her.

From Mistress Wilding by Sabatini, Rafael

He kept continually in his hand a polished, oval, white carnelian, the gift of his widowing love, and at times it seemed his only consolation, the only thing left him in this world clearly tangible.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 11, No. 66, April, 1863 by Various