merry-widow

verb

To swirl around dancing a romantic or flamboyant waltz.

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Meanings

verbmerry-widow (third-person singular simple present merry-widows, present participle merry-widowing, simple past and past participle merry-widowed)

present singular third person merry-widows · participle present merry-widowing · participle past merry-widowed · past merry-widowed

  1. obsoleteTo swirl around dancing a romantic or flamboyant waltz.

    Dan produced his divining rod - a piece of forked willow tree - and taking a firm grip of it with both hands, went off ‘merry-widowing’ round Skinnerlouse’s yard.

    1911, ‘Steel Rudd’, The Book of Dan, Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, published 1970, page 8

Origin

From Franz Lehár's popular 1905 operetta The Merry Widow (Die lustige Witwe); the romantic centerpiece is a sweeping, hypnotic waltz where the two main characters dance together because they are too stubborn to admit their love out loud.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

merry-widow. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/merry-widow

MLA

“merry-widow.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/merry-widow. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “merry-widow,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/merry-widow.

Source: merry-widow on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.