widow

Meanings

Noun

• A woman whose spouse has died (and who has not remarried); feminine of widower.
• A person whose spouse has died (and who has not remarried).
• A woman whose husband is often away pursuing a sport, etc.
• An additional hand of cards dealt face down in some card games, to be used by the highest bidder.
• A single line of type that ends a paragraph, carried over to the next page or column.
• A venomous spider, of the genus Latrodectus.

Verb

• To make a widow or widower of someone; to cause the death of the spouse of.
• To strip of anything valued.
• To endow with a widow's right.
• To be widow to.

Related

Similar words

• widowess

Origin

• From Middle English widwe, from Old English widuwe, from Proto-West Germanic *widuwā, from Proto-Germanic *widuwǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁widʰéwh₂, possibly from *h₁weydʰh₁-, *weydʰ-, whence also wood from Old English widu, wudu.
• Cognates include German Witwe, Dutch weduwe, Gothic 𐍅𐌹𐌳𐌿𐍅𐍉, Old Irish fedb, Latin vidua, Old Church Slavonic въдова, Sanskrit विधवा and Persian بیوه (bīve / bēwa) , Middle Persian wēwag, Avestan viðavā- "widow" .