widow’s weeds

American  

[wid-ohz weedz] / ˈwɪd oʊz ˈwidz /

plural noun

1. mourning clothes worn by a woman after the death of her spouse.

   She was still in widow’s weeds, but starting to attend more social engagements.

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Etymology

Origin of widow’s weeds

First recorded in 1570–80

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

widow’s weeds

Trina wears her wampum beads She fills her drawing book with line Sewing lace on widow’s weeds And filigree on leaf and vine.

From New York Times ● Apr. 10, 2024

Glazed with jet lag, I found myself staring unabashedly into the cart of an old woman in widow's weeds.

From Salon ● Jun. 4, 2019

Please stop imposing some Victorian mandate that she must wear widow’s weeds for some period of time that you dictate.

From Slate ● Jul. 1, 2014

Victoria was already dead, but had lived into the 20th century as Britain's longest-surviving monarch, still dressed in her archaic widow's weeds.

From The Guardian ● Jun. 2, 2012

Barbara, with the grey mingled freely in her light hair, and her severe widow's weeds, might look more than twenty-eight but Alex, at thirty-one, bore the semblance of a woman of forty.

From Consequences by E. M. Delafield

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