widow, n.¹ — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

widow n.¹

1. an expiring fire.

1710

British Apollo n.p.: Fire expiring’s call’d a widow [OED].

2. an extra hand dealt to the table in certain card-games, but note cit. 1887.

1864		W.B. Dick Amer. Hoyle (1866) 182: Five cards are dealt to each player, one at a time, and an extra hand is dealt on the table, which is called the ‘widow’ [DA].
1887		J.W. Keller Draw Poker 12: Widow, or Kitty — A percentage taken out of the pool to defray the expenses of the game or the cost of refreshments [DA].
1898		W.B. Dick Amer. Hoyle (17th edn) 228: [In] the game of cinch [...] after the draw, the card or cards remaining undealt must be placed, face down, on the table, This is called the ‘widow’ [DA].

widow-bewitched (n.)

a woman whose husband is temporarily absent.

1725		Bailey (trans.) Erasmus’ Colloquies 171: If they should see you divorc’d from your Husband; a Widow, nay, to live (a Widow bewitcht) worse than a Widow; for Widows may marry again.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1844		Hereford Times 2 Nov. 3/3: We have heard ladies who live apart from their busbands usually called ‘widows betwitched’.
1863		E. Gaskell Sylvia’s Lovers III 171: Who’d ha’ thought of yo’r husband [...] makin’ a moonlight flittin’ and leavin’ yo’ to be a widow-bewitched.
1888		Yorks. Gaz. 5 May 10/3: Then boy and girl, widower bewildered and widow bewitched full of fancies [...] fell to comparing books.

widow five-finger (n.)

Widow Jones (n.) [var. on Mrs Jones under Mrs n.]

the lavatory.

1900		E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 69: Widow, Widow Jones, n. Water-closet.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

widow-maker (n.)

(Can./US) a dead branch caught high in a tree which may fall and kill or injure someone below.

1945		M.H. Allee Smoke Jumper 47: He remembered the Kid’s caution about widow-makers, limbs falling from high overhead [OED].
1965		M. Mcintyre Place of Quiet Waters 163: Now’s the time to look out for widow-makers... Don’t you go walking about in the woods when she’s blowing like this [OED].
2003		D. Burke Burke’s Backyard 🌐 ‘Widow Maker’ During a bushfire, some trees burn and fall over, but others don’t fall for hours or days later. Sometimes the trees are structurally weakened, like the hollow one shown in our segment. Other times the trees dry out and lose water pressure in the trunk or branches, and so they lose their strength. On a still, silent day, long after the fire has passed through, a huge branch or the whole tree can suddenly drop. These trees are so dangerous Don refers to them as ‘widow makers.’.

widow’s memory (n.)

a large sausage or other phallic comestible.

2007		Urban Dict. 3 May 🌐 Widow’s memories. Any phallic shaped fruit or vegetable, eg bananas, cucumbers, fingered lovingly and nostalgically by old ladies in supermarkets.
2014		Urban Dict. 27 Mar. 🌐 Widow’s memory Any type of large sausage such as a saveloy as it resembles a penis.
2021		Twitter 26 Dec. 🌐 My Dad just held up his fork with a big fat sausage on the end of it, looked all of us in the eye and said, This is what they call a ‘widow’s memory’.