A widow is a woman whose spouse or significant other has died, while a widower is a man whose spouse or significant other has died. The state of having lost one's spouse to death is termed widowhood or occasionally viduity. The adjective form is widowed. The treatment of widows around the world varies, but unequal benefits and treatment generally received by widows versus widowers globally has spurred an interest in the issue by human rights activists.
Read more about Widow: Economic Position, Widows in Indian Culture
Famous quotes containing the word widow:
“Nae living man I’ll love again,
Since that my lovely knight is slain.
Wi ae lock of his yellow hair
I’ll chain my heart for evermair.”
—Unknown. The Lament of the Border Widow (l. 25–28)
“For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”
—Bible: New Testament, Mark 12:44.
Jesus watching the widow contribute her two mites.
“When you got to the table you couldn’t go right to eating, but you had to wait for the widow to tuck down her head and grumble a little over the victuals, though there warn’t really anything the matter with them. That is, nothing only everything was cooked by itself. In a barrel of odds and ends it is different; things get mixed up, and the juice kind of swaps around, and the things go better.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)