“widows” is a form of
widow
UK /ˈwɪd.əʊ/ · US /ˈwɪd.oʊ/ noun, verb
Forms widows widowing widowed
- noun A woman whose spouse (traditionally husband) has died (and who has not remarried); a woman in relation to her late spouse; feminine of widower.
- noun (uncommon) Any person whose spouse has died (and who has not remarried).
- noun (by extension, informal, often humorous or sarcastic, in combination) A woman whose husband is often away pursuing a hobby, career, etc. “My aunt is a football widow in the fall and a basketball widow in the winter and early spring.”
- noun (card games) An additional hand of playing cards dealt face-down in some card games, to be used by the highest bidder.
- noun (typography) A single line of type that ends a paragraph but is separated from it by being carried over to the next page or column.
- noun Any venomous spider of the genus Latrodectus (called "widows" because of the practice of sexual cannibalism observed among many of these species).
- verb (transitive) To make a widow or widower of someone; to cause the death of the spouse of.
- verb (transitive, figurative) To strip of anything valued.
- verb (transitive, obsolete) To endow with a widow's right.
- verb (transitive, obsolete) To be widow to.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Etymology
From Middle English widwe, from Old English widuwe (“widow”), from Proto-West Germanic *widuwā (“widow”), from Proto-Germanic *widuwǭ (“widow”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁widʰéwh₂ (“widow”), possibly from *h₁weydʰh₁-, *widʰ- (“to separate, split, cleave, divide”), whence also wood from Old English widu, wudu.
Cognate with Scots weedae, wedow, widdow (“widow”), Cimbrian bittaba (“widow”), Dutch weduwe, weeuw (“widow”), German Witwe (“widow”), Vilamovian wytwa (“widow”), Gothic 𐍅𐌹𐌳𐌿𐍅𐍉 (widuwō, “widow”), Old Irish fedb (“widow”), Welsh gweddw (“widow”), Asturian and Spanish viuda (“widow”), Aragonese and Latin vidua (“widow”), Catalan vídua (“widow”), French veuve (“widow”), Galician and Portuguese viúva (“widow”), Italian vedova (“widow”), Romanian văduvă (“widow”), Ancient Greek ἠΐθεος (ēḯtheos, “bachelor”), Albanian ve (“widow, widower”), Belarusian удава́ (udavá, “widow”), Czech, Slovak, and Slovene vdova (“widow”), Polish gdowa, wdowa (“widow”), Russian and Ukrainian вдова́ (vdová, “widow”), Serbo-Croatian udova, у̀дова (“widow”), Central Kurdish بێوە (bêwe, “widow”), Ossetian идӕдз (idæʒ, “widowed”), Persian بیوه (bive, bêva, “widow”), Sanskrit विधवा (vidhavā, “widow”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun A woman who has lost her husband by death, and has not married again; one living bereaved of a husband. "A poor widow." Chaucer.
- adjective Widowed. "A widow woman." 1 Kings xvii. 9. "This widow lady." Shak.
- verb To reduce to the condition of a widow; to bereave of a husband; --rarely used except in the past participle.
- verb To deprive of one who is loved; to strip of anything beloved or highly esteemed; to make desolate or bare; to bereave.
Etymology [OE. widewe, widwe, AS. weoduwe, widuwe, wuduwe; akin to OFries. widwe, OS. widowa, D. weduwe, G. wittwe, witwe, OHG. wituwa, witawa, Goth. widuw, Russ. udova, OIr. fedb, W. gweddw, L. vidua, Skr. vidhava; and probably to Skr. vidh to be empty, to lack; cf. Gr. Vidual.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “widow”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details