| widow | 1. To reduce to the condition of a widow; to bereave of a husband; rarely used except in the past participle. "Though in thus city he Hath widowed and unchilded many a one, Which to this hour bewail the injury." (Shak) 2. To deprive of one who is loved; to strip of anything beloved or highly esteemed; to make desolate or bare; to bereave. "The widowed isle, in mourning, Dries up her tears." (Dryden) "Tress of their shriveled fruits Are widowed, dreary storms o'er all prevail." (J. Philips) "Mourn, widowed queen; forgotten Sion, mourn." (Heber) 3. To endow with a widow's right. 4. To become, or survive as, the widow of. "Let me be married to three kings in a forenoon, and widow them all." (Shak) Origin: Widowed; Widowing. A woman who has lost her husband by death, and has not married again; one living bereaved of a husband. "A poor widow." Grass widow. See Grass. Widow bewitched, a woman separated from her husband; a grass widow. Widow-in-mourning, in London, the apparel and furniture of the bedchamber of the widow of a freeman, to which she was formerly entitled. Origin: 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. A bachelor. Cf. Vidual. Widowed. "A widow woman." . "This widow lady." Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| widow bird | <zoology> See Whidan bird. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| widow's peak | A sharp point of hair growth in the midline of the anterior scalp margin, usually resulting from recession of hair of the temple areas, or occurring as a congenital configuration of scalp hair. (05 Mar 2000) |
| widow-wail | <botany> A low, narrowleaved evergreen shrub (Cneorum tricoccon) found in Southern Europe. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| widowhood | 1. The state of being a widow; the time during which a woman is widow; also, rarely, the state of being a widower. "Johnson clung to her memory during a widowhood of more than thirty years." (Leslie Stephen) 2. Estate settled on a widow. "I 'll assure her of her widowhood . . . In all my lands." Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| black widow spider | A venomous new world spider with an hourglass-shaped red mark on the abdomen. (12 Dec 1998) |
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| black widow spider venom | Potent neurotoxin that induces catastrophic release of acetylcholine from presynaptic terminals of cholinergic chemical synapses. (18 Nov 1997) |