• Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
    • Maiden-widowed widowed while still a virgin
    • ***


In literature:

Girls and boys, young men and old, maidens and wives, and widows, were all alike musical.
"Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions" by Charles Mackay
We are constantly hearing of lovely maidens, charming wives, buxom widows, but almost never of attractive old maids.
But the simplest maiden or the silliest widow in society, is seldom taken in by him.
Girls and boys, young men and old, maidens and wives and widows, were all alike musical.
I was the only widow, and the other old maids besides Melissa were all hopelessly old-maiden.
Goody Nurse, who was a frequent caller at the home of the widow Stevens, was loud in her praises of the maiden, who had budded into womanhood.
"The Witch of Salem" by John R. Musick
If she is a maiden or widow, it is probable she will marry this year.
"The Ladies Book of Useful Information" by Anonymous
He knew her at once, and in a moment he forgot his dreams of slaves, and widows, and poor maidens.
"Tales From Scottish Ballads" by Elizabeth W. Grierson
Invitations to the marriage of a widow are engraved with her whole name, maiden and married, thus: ELIZABETH STUART FIELDING.
"Social Life" by Maud C. Cooke
And he could but draw involuntary comparisons between the fair, frank, bright maiden and the beautiful, alluring widow.
"Victor's Triumph" by Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth
The marriage of a maiden usually occurred on Wednesday evening, that of a widow on Thursday.
"Oriental Women" by Edward Bagby Pollard
Fair maidens, therefore, and widows to boot, were anxious to obtain the vacant hand of the wealthy widower.
"Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland" by Various
No maiden so coy and no widow so sly But he'll jump like a shot at the Cowdung Fly!
"Wayside Weeds" by William Hodgson Ellis
She was like some dainty maiden, no refugee from the world, sad and widowed.
"The Storm Centre" by Charles Egbert Craddock
I pass over the period of internal convulsion in the Douce hearts, widowed and maiden, which followed Barrington's disclosure.
"True and Other Stories" by George Parsons Lathrop
It is fully permissible for a widow to revive her maiden name after several years of widowhood.
"Book of Etiquette" by Lillian Eichler
He was a widower and had now in his household his maiden sister a few years his junior.
"The Red Debt" by Everett MacDonald
The widow replied, that she had a maiden who lived with her, and who would execute his orders.
"The Thousand and One Days" by Julia Pardoe
Maidens of Israel or a priest's widow they could marry.
"The Prophet Ezekiel" by Arno C. Gaebelein
To her, marriage was more than it usually seems to dreaming maiden or to disconsolate widow.
"Harper's New Monthly Magazine Vol. IV, No. 19, Dec 1851" by Various

In poetry:

"The breeze is soft at eve, that oft
From Milford Havens moans;
It whispers maidens' stifled cries,
It breathes of widows' groans.
"The Bard Of Wales" by Janos Arany
ALINE. No young giddy thoughtless maiden,
Full of graces, airs, and jeers—
But a sober widow, laden
With the weight of fifty years!
"The Sorcerer: Act II" by William Schwenck Gilbert
They dug three graves in Lyndhurst yard;
They dug them side by side;
Two yeomen lie there, and a maiden fair
A widow and never a bride.
"A New Forest Ballad" by Charles Kingsley
The fame of his piping spread over the land:
Respectable widows proposed for his hand,
And maidens came flocking to sit on the green -
"Ellen McJones Aberdeen" by William Schwenck Gilbert
Ah, what a contrast one short year presents!
Replete with happiness--replete with woe;
In that brief space, a maiden called, and wife,
Widow and mother written--childless too.
"Life's Changes" by Mary Ann H T Bigelow
Nor was this all the widow said, for in his early youth,
There was a tale of love and wrong, of vows and perjured truth.
The storm I do remember well that brought the bones to light;
I was a maiden then myself, with curly hair and bright.
"The Sinless Child Part 4" by Elizabeth Oakes Smith

In news:

Beach Blanket Babylon Sooner or later, you're obliged to go: Your maiden aunt, your widowed grandmother, your Uncle Erwin and Aunt Wilhelmina from the Midwest, or some other such person is coming to town.