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).

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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

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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.

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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

It included a segment in which he addressed the first lady in the audience and said, "Mrs Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow."

From Barron's • Apr. 27, 2026

A video posted online showed Erika Kirk, the widow of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, in tears as she was escorted from the dinner.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 26, 2026

She suggests he keep a horse, explaining that she doesn’t want to end up a widow or divorcée.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 21, 2026

Professor David Lalloo, from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine says the bites from false widow spiders "are not dangerous".

From BBC • Apr. 13, 2026

The widow herself sat out in the grassy front yard in a rocking chair.

From Anya and the Dragon by Sofiya Pasternack