grass widow

American  

noun

1. a woman who is separated, divorced, or lives apart from her husband.

2. a woman whose husband is away from home frequently or for a long time, as on business or to pursue a sport or hobby.

3. Archaic.

   1. a discarded mistress.

   2. a woman who has borne an illegitimate child.

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grass widow British  

noun

1. a woman divorced, separated, or living away from her spouse

2. a woman whose spouse is regularly away for short periods

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grass widow Idioms  

1. A woman who is separated from her husband, either by divorce or temporary absence. For example, She's a grass widow these days, with Herb traveling to golf tournaments all over the country. The expression dates from the 16th century, when it referred to the mother of an illegitimate child, grass presumably alluding to the open-air setting of the child's conception.

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Other Word Forms

• grasswidowhood
  noun

Etymology

Origin of grass widow

1520–30; the first element perhaps originally alluding to a bed of grass, hay, or the like; compare Dutch grasweduwe, German Strohwittwe literally, straw-widow

Example Sentences

The conservancy maintains miles of pathways inside the ranch and at Cowiche Canyon Uplands, with shrub-steppe habitat zones for stunning spring-summer wildflower shows of prairie star flower, grass widow and other ornaments.

From Seattle Times • Mar. 8, 2023

Her husband, a failed real estate developer, walks out, leaving Mildred a grass widow with no income besides the money she makes baking pies for neighbors.

From New York Times • Mar. 24, 2011

A young grass widow, a middle-aged baron who was her father, and a preacher whom she made her confessor formally presented themselves before a Copenhagen magistrate last week.

From Time Magazine Archive

Dolly, who had guilelessly fancied herself No. 3, was left, according to the court, still a lonely grass widow, never legally married to Astor and apparently powerless to take anything out of his heritage.

From Time Magazine Archive

You'd have had your whack of travelling, playing the grass widow; you'd have entertained, had all sorts of little games—and both of us been all the better.

From Rest Harrow A Comedy of Resolution by Hewlett, Maurice Henry