widow

A woman whose husband frequently absents himself from home so as to go and play golf. I thought I would finally see more of John after his retirement, but I became a golf widow instead.

A supply source that seems as if it is or should be meager or limited but ends up being or seeming limitless. Despite claims that the company needed to scale back pay for all its employees, the CEO's salary seems to be drawn from a widow's cruse, as it has only ever gone up in recent years. Education is the only true widow's cruse. The benefits gleaned by children and adults at any level of education is many times what must be put into the system.

A small monetary contribution made by one who is poor. Edna hardly has any money, and she still gives the church a widow's mite.

A point in the hairline in the middle of one's forehead. Now known to be a genetic trait, it was once believed to indicate early widowhood. My sister has a widow's peak. Does this haircut make my widow's peak too noticeable?

The black dress and veil traditionally worn by a widow while mourning the death of her husband. The formidable matriarch remained in her widow's weeds for years after the death of her husband, the late Don Salvatore.

a woman abandoned by her husband. (The origin of this is not clear.) Jane's husband isn't dead, but she's a widow just the same—a grass widow. Bill ran off and left Mary a grass widow.

A woman who is separated from her husband, either by divorce or temporary absence. For example, She's a grass widow these days, with Herb traveling to golf tournaments all over the country . The expression dates from the 16th century, when it referred to the mother of an illegitimate child, grass presumably alluding to the open-air setting of the child's conception.

A woman temporarily or permanently separated from her husband. Many times during and after the American West was settled, farmers decided that they had enough of such a bleak life, whereupon they left their wives and children. These abandoned women were known as grass widows, left out to grass on the Great Plains. (The phrase is, however, much older. It was first used in 16th-century England to describe women of easy virtue who “slept” on beds of grass instead of mattresses and bed linen.) “Grass widow” came to be applied to the wives of traveling salesmen, professional athletes, and other men who spent much of their year on the road. As that usage became obsolete, similar phrases appeared: golf widow, fishing or hunting widow, and any other sport that claimed their hubby's attention.

Female mourning costume. The word “weed” comes from an Old English word for “garment.” As a phrase to wear widow's weeds simply means to be in mourning. Many cultures have had or still have a custom of wearing distinctive clothing to mark a husband's death. In Victorian England, for example, a widow wore black for the first year and a day, then moved through dark purple and other somber colors to lighter shades. However, the queen who gave her name to the era wore no other color than black after the death of her beloved husband Prince Albert. Many widows in many Mediterranean countries, most notable Greece and southern Italy, wear black for the rest of their lives.