Widowhood

2 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Widowhood \Wid"ow*hood\, n.
     1. The state of being a widow; the time during which a woman
        is widow; also, rarely, the state of being a widower.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Johnson clung to her memory during a widowhood of


              more than thirty years.               --Leslie
                                                    Stephen.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Estate settled on a widow. [Obs.] "I 'll assure her of her
        widowhood . . . in all my lands." --Shak.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  widowhood
       n 1: the time of a woman's life when she is a widow
       2: the state of being a widow who has not remarried