widow's cruse

American  

noun

1. an inexhaustible supply of something: in allusion to the miracle of the cruse of oil in 1 Kings 17:10–16 and 2 Kings 4:1–7.

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widow's cruse British  

noun

1. an endless or unfailing source of supply

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Etymology

Origin of widow's cruse

First recorded in 1600–10

Example Sentences

The other 17 were dry as the widow's cruse, were rapidly deteriorating into a useless mass of rust.

From Time Magazine Archive

In the U.S. today, he adds grimly, "There is no widow's cruse."

From Time Magazine Archive

"Aunt Polly's chest is like the widow's cruse," said Mrs. Carteret, "which was never empty."

From The Marrow of Tradition by Chesnutt, Charles W. (Charles Waddell)

Court appointments are the drop of oil in the widow's cruse, they ever increase.

From The Man Who Laughs by Hugo, Victor

But an inventive genius may safely stay at home; that, like the widow's cruse, is divinely replenished from within, and affords us a miraculous delight.

From Johnson's Lives of the Poets — Volume 2 by Johnson, Samuel