Widow-maker

Quick meaning: Widow-maker is a noun meaning (forestry) The detached or broken limb of a tree, a hazard to those walking underneath.

Meaning

(forestry) The detached or broken limb of a tree, a hazard to those walking underneath.

More Meanings

1. (military, slang) The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter.
2. (idiomatic) Something which or someone who takes a person's life, particularly men; a lethal hazard that affects mostly men or is specific to a primarily male trade.
3. (medicine, informal) An occlusion of the left coronary artery or its anterior interventricular branch; which is likely to cause a fatal heart attack.

Example Sentences

O, it grieves my soul, / That I must draw this metal from my side / To be a widow-maker!

What is a woman that you forsake her, / And the hearth-fire and the home-acre, / To go with the old grey Widow-maker?

Finally, jobs that are 'widow-makers' should be rethought and restructured. In the heyday of the great sailing ships, around 1850, just before the coming of steam, every shipping company had a widow-maker on its hands once in a while. ... One typical 'widow-maker' has been the job of international vice-president in the large American company.

Word Forms

• widow-makers
• widowmaker

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include widowmaker, lethal, womanslaughter, matadora, victim, mankiller.

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