Meaning of widow-maker | Babel Free

Definitions

1. 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.
   idiomatic
2. The detached or broken limb of a tree, a hazard to those walking underneath.
3. An occlusion of the left coronary artery or its anterior interventricular branch; which is likely to cause a fatal heart attack.
   informal
4. The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter.
   slang

Equivalents

Examples

“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.”

CEFR level