widow-maker

widow maker

1. informal A myocardial infarction (heart attack) resulting from a blocked or damaged left anterior descending artery. Despite the name, it can be occur in both men and women. Sometimes hyphenated or spelled as a single word. My husband managed to survive a widow maker shortly after Christmas, but he has been in very rough shape ever since. Health professionals are trying to determine why the country has such a high rate of widow-makers among its population.
2. informal Anything that is extremely dangerous and likely to cause death. (Often used hyperbolically.) The mountain has become notorious as a widow maker, causing more deaths per year than any other climbing destination in the world. The bartender calls this cocktail "The Widowmaker."
See also: maker, widow
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

widow-maker

n. a dangerous horse; anything dangerous: a gun, strong alcohol, etc. I call this stuff widow-maker. It’s really strong.
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions
See also:
  • widow maker
  • how-d'ye-do
  • flow
  • nummers
  • sweat
  • sweats
  • yes, sirree
  • nummy
  • bottle
  • the bottle
References in periodicals archive
A widow-maker sounds like our old killer on the loose, but this time caught and hanging from a tree in the pines, in the pines, where the sun never shines.
However, dangerous they think the first couple of days, they will need to brace themselves for day three, which will see the truckers tackle one of the 'widow-maker' trails, which is one of the most notorious routes in British Columbia.
After the recent events in New Zealand and Chile, watching them go down a hole in the ground is even more worrying than it would be normally - especially when they're introduced to a whizzy bit of Edwardian drilling kit dubbed "the widow-maker."
LIKE MOST OF you, I've heard all the warnings--never ride a horse named Cyclone, Dynamite, or Widow-Maker. But as one of those people who remembers when nearly all primetime television programming consisted of westerns, I'll admit there has always been a bit of cowboy in my soul, even if not my lifestyle.
"The Widow-Maker Heart Attack at Age 48: Written by a Heart Attack Survivor for a Heart Attack Survivor and Their Loved Ones" is a combination memoir and advice manual, reflecting on Patrick Fox's own survival of his heart attack and the year after which proved quite tumultuous for him.
I'm always afraid of missing that widow-maker lesion."
The Jambo contingent was also boosted by eight survivors of the notorious K19 "Widow-maker" disaster at the height of the Cold War.
Like the portable, farm-sized petroleum-powered drag saws, the infamous "Widow-Maker" circular saws were widely available in the early 1900s as internal combustion engines reached farms across the country.
Nowra has been working just as long and has penned a dozen film scripts, including "K19: The Widow-maker Both produced a play at the Griffin in 2004, and will again this year.
As performed with great resonance by American bass Greer Grimsley, the notorious widow-maker was strangely sympathetic.
For,not only did he deprive so many innocent people of their lives,he was an orphan-maker and a widow-maker too.
Paramount debuted on video the Harrison Ford drama K-19--The Widow-maker and Hey Arnold!, the animated film based on the Nickelodeon cable series.
6 (-) K-19 - The Widow-maker (12A) Cold War tension in a stricken Soviet submarine.
On display, and open to inspection to even the smallest of visitors, were a range of planes including the Lockheed F104G Starfighter, also ominously known as the Widow-Maker, a McDonnell Voodoo TF 101B Fighter, a Vulcan bomber and a 1949 Fairey Gannet Naval Trainer craft.
You might find a cheap wood "widow-maker" on sale for $15 to $20, but a good wood ladder will cost $30 to $45.