widow

American  

[wid-oh] / ˈwɪd oʊ /

noun

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).

---

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

---

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.

---

Other Word Forms

• widowhood
  noun
• widowly
  adjective

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

Still, it’s easy to see how those numbers led Miles and Kirk’s widow Erika, who took over TPUSA, to think they could leverage the moment into a revival tour.

From Salon • May 17, 2026

While your brother’s widow is, no doubt, providing the care and guidance of both a mother and a father to these children, the knowledge that their uncle is also looking out for them is priceless.

From MarketWatch • May 8, 2026

The team in South Africa then took a closer look at the widow of the passenger who scientists would later suspect was killed by the virus on the Hondius.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 6, 2026

His widow Chantelle told the BBC she is expecting a baby boy in what had been a "pick up for the whole family" after planning the treatment with Joe before his death.

From BBC • May 6, 2026

When George Washington married a rich twenty-seven-year-old widow named Martha Dandridge Custis in January 1759, he gained even more land, people, and prestige.

From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis