Dictionary entry

Widow (3)

Webster's Dictionary 1913

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. 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. Shak.

4. To become, or survive as, the widow of.

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

them all. Shak.