widow: Meaning and Definition of

wid•ow

Pronunciation: (wid'ō), [key]
— n.
  1. a woman who has lost her husband by death and has not remarried.
  2. an additional hand or part of a hand, as one dealt to the table.
    1. a short last line of a paragraph, esp. 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. Cf.orphan(def. 4).
  3. a woman often left alone because her husband devotes his free time to a hobby or sport (used in combination). Cf.
—v.t.
  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.
    1. to endow with a widow's right.
    2. to survive as the widow of.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.
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