Wid"ow*hood (?), n.
1.
The state of being a widow; the time during which a woman is widow; also, rarely, the state of being a widower.
Johnson clung to her memory during a widowhood of more than thirty years.
Leslie Stephen.
2.
Estate settled on a widow.
[Obs.] "I 'll assure her of her
widowhood . . . in all my lands."
Shak.
© Webster 1913.