widow

Meaning

Noun

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

Verb

1. To make a widow or widower of someone; to cause the death of the spouse of.
2. To strip of anything valued.
3. (obsolete) To endow with a widow's right.
4. (obsolete) To be widow to.

Hyphenated as

wid‧ow

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈwɪd.əʊ/

Etymology

PIE word
*dwóh₁
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-, *widʰ- (“to separate, split, cleave, divide”), whence also wood from Old English widu, wudu.
Cognates include German Witwe, Dutch weduwe, Gothic 𐍅𐌹𐌳𐌿𐍅𐍉 (widuwō), Old Irish fedb, Latin vidua, Old Church Slavonic въдова (vŭdova), Sanskrit विधवा (vidhavā) and Persian بیوه (bive, bêva), Middle Persian wēwag, Avestan viðavā- "widow" .

Sentences

His widow , Sahana Pradhan , took over the leadership of the party .

He is survived by his widow , Lady Skeet , who resides in Milton Ernest , Bedfordshire .