Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use widow in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, verb

Widow means a woman whose spouse (traditionally husband) has died (and who has not remarried); a woman in relation to her late spouse; feminine of widower. Example: “My aunt is a football widow in the fall and a basketball widow in the winter and early spring.”

Examples of widow by meaning

nounA woman whose husband is often away pursuing a hobby, career, etc.

  • My aunt is a football widow in the fall and a basketball widow in the winter and early spring.
  • I had been feeling like a bowling-alley widow, but knew he loved the game, so I suggested we join a mixed league.1988 November 27, Emily Parry, “For a Bowling Widow, a Split Isn't Just Two Lonely Pins”, in New York Times
  • And how many betting widows do I see at the hospital, who hardly see their husbands while the betting shops are open!2010, Theodore Dalrymple, “There’s No Damned Merit In It”, in Life at the Bottom, published 1997

More sentences with widow

  • The female black widow spider is known to cannibalise the male.From the entry cannibalise
  • Formally the widow still ranches, but in fact she leaves all ranching to the foreman.From the entry ranch
  • Ever the sailor's widow looked seaward, hoping to see her missing man coming home.From the entry seaward
  • We went to the funeral. The religious service was nice until the widow broke down in tears.From the entry religious service
  • My intention was to marry a wealthy widow.From the entry intention
  • His widow was beside herself with grief.From the entry beside oneself
  • This church will remarry widows or widowers, but not divorcés.From the entry remarry
  • His distraught widow cried for days, feeling very alone.From the entry distraught
  • There have been many major and minor orders in the history of Christianity: the order of virgins, of deacons, priests, lectors, acolytes, porters, catechists, widows, etc.From the entry order
  • Forms often ask if a person is single, married, divorced, or widowed. In this context, a person who is dating someone but who has never married puts "single".From the entry single
  • But other family members, including RFK’s widow Ethel, felt Sirhan should remain imprisoned.2022 January 13, Jake Tapper and Cheri Mossburg, “California Gov. Gavin Newsom denies parole for RFK assassin Sirhan Sirhan”, in CNN…. From the entry ethel
  • Eleven months after being widowed I decided it was time to bachelorize my home.2014, Richard R. Pariseau, Events in the Life of an Ordinary Man, page 283. From the entry bachelorize
  • She worries over them now as a widow over rosary beads.2013, Deborah Paredez, “Auguste Arrives”, in Feminist Studies, volume 39, number 3, College Park, Md.: Feminist Studies, Inc., →ISSN…. From the entry wurst
  • When the widow falls pregnant, the neighbours are convinced they know who is responsible.2012, Ian Mortimer, The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England (Time Traveller's guide), London: Random House, →ISBN, page 318. From the entry compurgatrix
  • Both Henry Packer and the widow accordingly find themselves in court.2012, Ian Mortimer, The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England (Time Traveller's guide), London: Random House, →ISBN, page 318. From the entry compurgatrix
  • Kern, an 81-year-old widow, lives alone amid floors rotted in places and some paneless windows.2007 August 26, Bruce Lambert, “Amid Family’s Quarrels, a Home Worthy of Gatsby Begins to Crumble”, in New York Times. From the entry paneless
  • These restrictions meant that only a few widows could engage in formal commerce.2003, Sheilagh Ogilvie, “Widows”, in A Bitter Living: Women, Markets, and Social Capital in Early Modern Germany, Oxford University Press…. From the entry shopkeeperess
  • The tie between the childless widow and the levir exists automatically from the moment of widowhood.2001, David L. Lieber, Jules Harlow, Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary, page 236. From the entry levir
  • I watched the animated widows in their bombazine dresses, capping each other's memories.2000, JG Ballard, Super-Cannes, Fourth Estate, published 2011, page 144. From the entry bombazine
  • We represent the married, widowed, single, significant-othered, divorced; some have children, grandchildren, even great-grandchildren.2000, Ann O’Neal Garcia, “‘There’s Life in the Old Dame Yet…”, in Cynthia Black, editor, Our Turn, Our Time: Women Truly Coming of Age…. From the entry significant-othered
  • Gladiola Manning, 83, homemaker, widow of Clenzy Manning, died of heart failure Wednesday at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Osceola.1995 November 3, “[Mid-South Deaths] Arkansas”, in The Commercial Appeal, 156th year, number 307, Memphis, Tenn.: Scripps Howard, →ISSN…. From the entry gladiola
  • The leviration of such widows by the deceased clan-member is not rare in the society.1993, Takhe Kani, The advancing Apatanis of Arunachal Pradesh, page 111. From the entry leviration
  • Some widows in Brigstock also probably sold free bench lands, despite the customary restriction on such sales.1987, Judith M Bennett, Women in the Medieval English Countryside, page 165. From the entry free bench
  • The copper widow was the most hot-blooded woman I have ever known.1983, James [Archibald] Houston, “Pot Latch”, in Eagle Song: An Indian Saga Based on True Events, San Diego, Calif.; New York, N.Y.…. From the entry hot-blooded
  • Surviving are his widow, the former Marion Bristol: 3 sons, John B., Dr.1965 December 19, “Robert Lawson, 65, Expert on Knitwear Manufacture”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company…. From the entry Clorinda
  • Why, I’ll just bet you anything that place is acrawl with black widows.1962, Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, London: Picador, published 1976, Part 3, p. 164. From the entry acrawl
  • I can't remember if I cried when I read about his widowed bride.1959, Don McLean, American Pie (song). From the entry widowed
  • Surviving are his widow, the former Marian Agne; a son, Alfred J.; a daughter, Miss Floria M.1954 February 19, “Alfred P. Heinrichs”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC. From the entry Floria
  • And the widows of murdered men—not sharing that exile—accepted the wiveless men of Ades as their deliverers.1947, Murray Leinster, The Boomerang Circuit; republished as “The Boomerang Circuit”, in Black Cat Weekly, number 58, 2022, page 657. From the entry wiveless
  • Widow Toad: What do you want me to do about her?1943, Vera Morris, transl., Thumbelina, Denver, Colorado: Pioneer Drama Service, page 8. From the entry brek-kek-kex
  • A widow with a child was at a disadvantage with these pretty little minxes, she thought.1936 June 30, Margaret Mitchell, chapter XVIII, in Gone with the Wind, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, published June 1944, →OCLC…. From the entry minx
  • Lightly and amiably satirical: a snob makes a Frankenstein's monster of a blandandering Irish widow.1926 October 9, “Tell Me a Book to Read”, in The New Yorker, New York, N.Y.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 87, column 2. From the entry blandander
  • That widow on Monday was it outside Cramer's that looked at me.1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 13: Nausicaa]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 363. From the entry widow's mite
  • He loves a very wealthy widow, whose name, Ottiline, sounds like a stove polish.1915 September 19, “The New [Arthur Wing] Pinero Play”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC. From the entry Ottiline
  • Menless women—female bachelors, divorcées, authentic and spurious widows—were mostly told off each in one room.1905, Emil Friend, “The Alliance”, in Masks: A Novel, Chicago, Ill.: Geo. W. Ogilvie & Co., page 19. From the entry menless
  • The killing of Renee Nicole Good, a mother of three and widow of a military veteran, tests that assumption.2026 January 8, Michelle Goldberg, “By Killing Renee Good, ICE Sent a Message to Us All”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New…. From the entry Nicole
  • Like there's no established ensemble for driving your son's widow home after she's confessed and then unconfessed to his murder.2021, Cate Quinn, Black Widows, page 363. From the entry unconfess

Meaning of widow

  1. noun A woman whose spouse (traditionally husband) has died (and who has not remarried); a woman in relation to her late spouse; feminine of widower.
  2. noun Any person whose spouse has died (and who has not remarried).
  3. noun A woman whose husband is often away pursuing a hobby, career, etc.

Full definition of widow

Questions about widow in a sentence

How do you use widow in a sentence?
Widow is used as a noun and verb. For example: “My aunt is a football widow in the fall and a basketball widow in the winter and early spring.”
What is a short sentence with widow?
“His widow was beside herself with grief.”
What does widow mean?
Widow means a woman whose spouse (traditionally husband) has died (and who has not remarried); a woman in relation to her late spouse; feminine of widower.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: widow (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use widow in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/widow. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.