Widow

Wid"ow (?), n. (Card Playing) In various games, any extra hand or part of a hand, as one dealt to the table.

Wid"ow, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Widowed (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Widowing.]

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.

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.

Tress of their shriveled fruits
Are widowed, dreary storms o'er all prevail.

Mourn, widowed queen; forgotten Sion, mourn.

3. To endow with a widow's right. [R.] Shak.

4. To become, or survive as, the widow of. [Obs.]

Let me be married to three kings in a forenoon, and widow
them all.

Wid"ow (?), n. [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. vidhavā; and probably to Skr. vidh to be empty, to lack; cf. Gr. ? a bachelor. ????. Cf. Vidual.] A woman who has lost her husband by death, and has not married again; one living bereaved of a husband. "A poor widow." Chaucer.

Grass widow. See under Grass. -- Widow bewitched, a woman separated from her husband; a grass widow. [Colloq.] -- Widow-in-mourning (Zoöl.), the macavahu. -- Widow monkey (Zoöl.), a small South American monkey (Callithrix lugens); -- so called on account of its color, which is black except the dull whitish arms, neck, and face, and a ring of pure white around the face. -- Widow's chamber (Eng. Law), in London, the apparel and furniture of the bedchamber of the widow of a freeman, to which she was formerly entitled.

Wid"ow, a. Widowed. "A widow woman." 1 Kings xvii. 9. "This widow lady." Shak.