WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026
wid•ow•hood
(wid′ō hŏŏd′),USA pronunciation n.
WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2026- the state or a period of being a widow or, sometimes, a widower.
- Middle English wid(e)wehood, Old English widuwanhād, equivalent. to widuwan, genitive singular of widuwe widow + -hād -hood bef. 900
wid•ow /ˈwɪdoʊ/USA pronunciation
n. [countable]
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026- Anthropologya woman whose husband has died and who has not remarried.
- a woman who is often left alone because her husband devotes his free time to a hobby or sport:a golf widow.
wid•ow
(wid′ō),USA pronunciation n.
v.t.
wid′ow•ly, adj.
- Anthropologya woman who has lost her husband by death and has not remarried.
- Games[Cards.]an additional hand or part of a hand, as one dealt to the table.
- Printing
- Printinga short last line of a paragraph, esp. one less than half of the full measure or one consisting of only a single word.
- Printingthe 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).
- a woman often left alone because her husband devotes his free time to a hobby or sport (used in combination). Cf. golf widow.
v.t.
- to make (someone) a widow:She was widowed by the war.
- to deprive of anything cherished or needed:A surprise attack widowed the army of its supplies.
- [Obs.]
- to endow with a widow's right.
- to survive as the widow of.
- bef. 900; (noun, nominal) Middle English wid(e)we, Old English widuwe, wydewe; cognate with German Witwe, Gothic widuwo, Latin vidua (feminine of viduus bereaved), Sanskrit vidhavā widow; (verb, verbal) Middle English, derivative of the noun, nominal
'widowhood' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):