Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A woman who is divorced or separated from her husband.
- n. A woman whose husband is temporarily absent.
- n. An abandoned mistress.
- n. The mother of a child born out of wedlock.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An unmarried woman who has had a child.
- n. A wife temporarily separated from her husband, as while he is traveling or residing at a distance on account of business: also often applied to a divorced woman, or to a wife who has been abandoned by her husband.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. [Obs.], [Slang.] A woman separated from her husband by abandonment or prolonged absence; a woman living apart from her husband.
- n. See under Grass.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a divorced woman or a woman who is separated from her husband
Etymologies
- From grass + widow. Compare Dutch grasweduwe, Swedish gräsänka. (Wiktionary)
- Perhaps in allusion to a bed of grass or hay. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Or Mrs. Brown, detecting her husband, Mr. Brown, in lamentable proceedings with a neighbor, the grass widow Kraus, forgives him and continues to be true to him in consideration of her children, Fred, Pansy and Little Fern.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘grass widow’.
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EN - Old Western Slang
a hog-killin' time, a lick and a promise, according to Hoyle, ace-high, all down but nine, arbuckle's, at sea, back down, balled up, bang-up, bazoo, bear sign and 212 more...
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slumry's Words
cattywampus, ingratiate, lackadaisical, exactitude, exfoliate, fulminate, circumnavigation, circuitous, debride, sidle, sequester, chicory and 1002 more...
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sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
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Clearinghouse
For stuff to simply reside.
calcar, pinion, espadrille, antipodes, peregrine, cormorant, tanager, vireo, farrago, undervest, passerine, oscine and 881 more...
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Widow's walk
widow's peak, widow's weeds, black widow, merry widow, golf widow, grass widow, war widow, widowmaker, widow's mite, widow and orphan, widow-and-orphan ..., widow's chamber and 18 more...
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G is for Guitar Face
My G Words
good grief, gruesome twosome, gal friday, gallop, galoshes, gangbusters, gaslight, gestapo, gigolo, gingersnaps, girdle, girl friday and 67 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for grass widow.
sionnach Generally taken to mean a woman who is temporarily separated from her husband (e.g. because of a work or military assignment). Thus, allegedly, a widow by grace or favour, not by necessity (as in the cause of death).
Several etymologies appear to be out there, none of them altogether convincing. Oct 27, 2007