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

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

From Time Magazine Archive

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

From Time Magazine Archive

Never before in all his life had he known the widow's cruse.

From The Broken Gate A Novel by Hough, Emerson

She looked at the coffee-pot and for a moment thought enviously of the widow's cruse.

From Salthaven by Jacobs, W. W. (William Wymark)

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