Wort des Tages
24 March 2026
widow-maker
nounForst und Holz
The detached or broken limb of a tree, a hazard to those walking underneath.
Warum dieses Wort
The name is blunt because the hazard is silent: a limb already broken loose sits in the canopy with nothing holding it but friction, and it comes down on its own schedule, not the sawyer's. Crews look up before they look down.
In use
Hold off on that stem, there's a widow-maker hung up about forty feet, and it'll come with the first pull.
Written by our editors to show how the term is used, not a recorded quotation.