Forms: 4 wid(e)wer, wydewer, 4–5 wedewer, 5 wyduare, 5–6 wydower, (wydward), 6 wedower, wydoer, 7 widdower, 9 dial. widver, 7– widower. [A new formation with -ER1 on WIDOW sb.1, appearing in late ME. and substituted as an unequivocal form for WIDOW sb.2 Cf. MHG. witewære, G. wittwer, MDu. wedewâre.]
1. A man whose wife is dead (and who has not married again); a husband bereaved of his wife.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. X. 194. Widewers and widewes [1377 B. IX. 174 Widwes and widwers]. Ibid. (1393), C. XI. 282. Wydewers and wydewes weddeth ayther othere.
1477. Paston Lett., III. 178. Sir T. Greye … is a wydower now late.
c. 1482. Monk of Evesham (Arb.), 75. His wyfe dide afore him … after hoys dethe he leuyd continent and chaste, in a wydwardys lyfe.
c. 1500. Melusine, 187. That pucelle reffused hym bycause he had be wedded tofore, & of late he was wydower.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, V. iii. 70. Heere wee’l stay To see our widdowers second marriage day.
1635. J. Taylor (Water P.), Old, Old Man, B 3 b. She dead, he ten yeares did a Widdower stay.
1694. Act 6 & 7 Will. & Mary, c. 6 § 46. The several duties … upon Batchelors and Widdowers by this Act granted.
1778. Johnson, in Boswell, Life (1904), II. 184. He was not content as a widower; for be married again.
1856. Kane, Arctic Expl., II. xi. 119. The mourners came together to weep and howl, while the widower recited his sorrows and her praise.
1905. Daily Chron., 14 April, 4/6. Mr. Otto Goldschmidt, widower of the late Jenny Lind.
b. Widower bewitched: a husband separated from or deserted by his wife. colloq. (Cf. WIDOW sb.1 1 d.)
1705. Dunton, Life & Err. (1818), I. 405. If my marrying a fortune has made me a scoundrel,… it is but while I continue a Widower bewitched.
† 2. One of an ecclesiastical class or order of men corresponding to the order of ‘widows.’ Obs.
1587. D. Fenner, Def. Ministers, 141. As they had their Leuiticall dispensors, or orderers of the holy Treasurie,… So we haue as members of the Church, as set of God as helpers, the Deacons, Church-seruauntes, Widowers and widowes.
1610. Bp. Hall, Apol. Brownists, § 19. Let there be Widdowers (which you call relieuers) appointed euery where to the Church-seruice. Let certaine discreete and able men which are not Ministers be appointed to preach the Gospell.
Hence Widowered a. rare [after WIDOWED], made or become a widower, bereaved of one’s wife; Widowerhood [after WIDOWHOOD], the condition of a widower, or the time during which a man is a widower; so Widowership, Widowery (rare) in same sense; in quot. 1886 transf. the condition of being absent from one’s wife.
1852. Rock, Ch. Fathers, III. I. viii. 31. The splendid signet of gold … which a weeping husband had drawn from off his *widowered finger.
1880. M. Betham-Edwards, Forestalled, II. xviii. Norland … felt more than ever widowered, orphaned, and forlorn.
a. 1796. Burns, Lett. (Pearson’s 76th Catal. [1894], 7). Bred a zealous Antiburger; but during his *widowerhood, he has found their strictness incompatible with certain compromises he is often obliged to make.
1834. Blackw. Mag., XXXV. 829. She makes an attempt … on the widowerhood of the Centenarian.
1883. Mrs. Lynn Linton, Ione, xv. Pledged to eternal widowerhood and constancy. Ibid. (1889), Thro’ Long Night, III. xv. This first year of his widowerhood.
1641. Earl Monm., trans. Biondi’s Civil Wars, I. 29. As if Fortune bad conspired to make all the Princes of the bloud, accompany the King in his *widowership.
1886. Stevenson, Lett., 13 Feb. (1911), II. 320. My wife is at Bath with my father and mother, and the interval of *widowery explains my writing.
