"widow's mite" meaning in All languages combined

See widow's mite on Wiktionary

Noun [English]

IPA: /ˈwɪdəʊz ˈmaɪt/ [Received-Pronunciation], /ˈwɪdoʊz ˈmaɪt/ [General-American] Audio: en-au-widow's mite.ogg Forms: widow's mites [plural]
Rhymes: -aɪt Etymology: From the Bible account of the poor widow’s donation of two mites (or leptons, small coins of low value) to the temple contribution box, which Jesus Christ praised as more than the gifts presented by wealthy people, for “[a]ll these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on”: Luke 21:1–4 (New International Version); see also Mark 12:38–44. Etymology templates: {{refn|From the collection of the Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.|group=n|note=n1}} Head templates: {{en-noun}} widow's mite (plural widow's mites)
  1. (idiomatic) A very small gift or donation which, however, represents a great sacrifice on the part of the giver. Tags: idiomatic Categories (place): Greece Translations (very small gift or donation): lesken ropo (Finnish), denier de la veuve [masculine] (French), Scherflein [neuter] (German), szegény özvegy(asszony) két fillérje (Hungarian), cianóg na baintrí [feminine] (Irish), wdowi grosz [masculine] (Polish), ле́пта (lépta) [feminine] (Russian), цр̏кавица [Cyrillic, feminine] (Serbo-Croatian), cȑkavica [Roman, feminine] (Serbo-Croatian)
    Sense id: en-widow's_mite-en-noun-UGf1WSoq Disambiguation of Greece: 50 50 Disambiguation of 'very small gift or donation': 99 1
  2. (numismatics) The lepton coin. Categories (topical): Coins, Historical currencies Categories (place): Greece
    Sense id: en-widow's_mite-en-noun-2HDHG07h Disambiguation of Coins: 9 91 Disambiguation of Historical currencies: 11 89 Disambiguation of Greece: 50 50 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Finnish translations, Terms with French translations, Terms with German translations, Terms with Hungarian translations, Terms with Irish translations, Terms with Polish translations, Terms with Russian translations, Terms with Serbo-Croatian translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 42 58 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 34 66 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 41 59 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 33 67 Disambiguation of Terms with Finnish translations: 26 74 Disambiguation of Terms with French translations: 23 77 Disambiguation of Terms with German translations: 26 74 Disambiguation of Terms with Hungarian translations: 22 78 Disambiguation of Terms with Irish translations: 27 73 Disambiguation of Terms with Polish translations: 29 71 Disambiguation of Terms with Russian translations: 23 77 Disambiguation of Terms with Serbo-Croatian translations: 26 74 Topics: hobbies, lifestyle, numismatics

Inflected forms

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  "etymology_text": "From the Bible account of the poor widow’s donation of two mites (or leptons, small coins of low value) to the temple contribution box, which Jesus Christ praised as more than the gifts presented by wealthy people, for “[a]ll these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on”: Luke 21:1–4 (New International Version); see also Mark 12:38–44.",
  "forms": [
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      "form": "widow's mites",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
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  ],
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      "expansion": "widow's mite (plural widow's mites)",
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    "wi‧dow's"
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
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          "_dis": "50 50",
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          "ref": "1662, George Lawson, chapter XIII, in An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrewes. […], London: Printed by J. S. for George Sawbridge, […], →OCLC, verse 16, page 354:",
          "text": "The matter of this Duty, is ſomething of theſe worldly Goods which God hath given us, are juſtly our own, and which we may ſpare, though never ſo little, if but the poor Widow's mite: for God requires our Charity according to our portion, we must give willingly and plentifully.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Fast-fish and Loose-fish”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 443:",
          "text": "What are the sinews and souls of Russian serfs and Republican slaves but Fast-Fish, whereof possession is the whole of the law? What to the rapacious landlord is the widow's last mite but a Fast-Fish?",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1857, Frederick Locker, “The Widow’s Mite”, in London Lyrics, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, page 72:",
          "text": "The widow had but only one, / A puny and decrepid son; / But day and night, / Though fretful oft, and weak, and small, / A loving child, he was her all— / The widow's mite.",
          "type": "quote"
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          "ref": "1866, [Elizabeth Rundle Charles], chapter VII, in The Draytons and the Davenants: A Story of the Civil Wars, author’s edition, New York, N.Y.: M. W. Dodd, […], →OCLC, page 270:",
          "text": "“A mite and the ‘widow’s mite,’ are some way apart, my dear,” said Aunt Dorothy; “your ‘widow’s mite,’ I suppose, might be the parsonage and the glebe, and those cows in your uncle’s park and meadow. Take care what you offer to the Lord. He sometimes takes us at our word. And there are plunderers abroad who take their own estimate of people’s mites, widows’ and others.”",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 13: Nausicaa]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 363:",
          "text": "That widow on Monday was it outside Cramer's that looked at me. Buried the poor husband but progressing favorably on the premium. Her widow's mite.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008, Gwynne Forster, chapter 1, in What Matters Most (Arabesque Contemporary Romance), Washington, D.C.: Kimani Press, →ISBN:",
          "text": "After the woman who gave me those ties left me that day, a cloud of guilt hung over me, and I couldn't shake it. It stayed with me through the night. I couldn't sleep. The woman was in her late sixties at the least, and she walked as if she carried the world on her shoulders. But she'd found a way to thank me. And I knew it was the widow's mite.",
          "type": "quote"
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        [
          "small",
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        [
          "represent",
          "represent"
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        [
          "great",
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        [
          "sacrifice",
          "sacrifice#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "giver",
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        "(idiomatic) A very small gift or donation which, however, represents a great sacrifice on the part of the giver."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
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      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "99 1",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "very small gift or donation",
          "word": "lesken ropo"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "99 1",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "very small gift or donation",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "denier de la veuve"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "99 1",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "very small gift or donation",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "Scherflein"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "99 1",
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "very small gift or donation",
          "word": "szegény özvegy(asszony) két fillérje"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "99 1",
          "code": "ga",
          "lang": "Irish",
          "sense": "very small gift or donation",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "cianóg na baintrí"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "99 1",
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "very small gift or donation",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "wdowi grosz"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "99 1",
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "lépta",
          "sense": "very small gift or donation",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "ле́пта"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "99 1",
          "code": "sh",
          "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
          "sense": "very small gift or donation",
          "tags": [
            "Cyrillic",
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "цр̏кавица"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "99 1",
          "code": "sh",
          "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
          "sense": "very small gift or donation",
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          "_dis": "11 89",
          "kind": "topical",
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          "orig": "en:Historical currencies",
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            "Currency",
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            "Economics",
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            "Social sciences",
            "All topics",
            "Sciences",
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          "ref": "2002, Ralph L. Stephenson, chapter 6, in The Biblical Guide to Wealth, Health, and Happiness, Victoria, B.C.: Trafford Publishing, page 131:",
          "text": "Leptons became famous as the \"widows mites\" when Christ observed a widow donating two of them to the temple treasury. Christ noted that she had donated more than everyone else had because that was all she had. The two mites were worth about 70 cents to one dollar in modern buying power, or about enough for a meal of beans.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The lepton coin."
      ],
      "id": "en-widow's_mite-en-noun-2HDHG07h",
      "links": [
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          "numismatics"
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          "lepton"
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      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(numismatics) The lepton coin."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "hobbies",
        "lifestyle",
        "numismatics"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈwɪdəʊz ˈmaɪt/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈwɪdoʊz ˈmaɪt/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
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      "audio": "en-au-widow's mite.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/90/En-au-widow%27s_mite.ogg/En-au-widow%27s_mite.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/En-au-widow%27s_mite.ogg"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-aɪt"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "João Zeferino da Costa",
    "Museu Nacional de Belas Artes",
    "New International Version"
  ],
  "word": "widow's mite"
}
{
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    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms derived from the Bible",
    "Entries with translation boxes",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
    "Rhymes:English/aɪt",
    "Rhymes:English/aɪt/3 syllables",
    "Terms with Finnish translations",
    "Terms with French translations",
    "Terms with German translations",
    "Terms with Hungarian translations",
    "Terms with Irish translations",
    "Terms with Polish translations",
    "Terms with Russian translations",
    "Terms with Serbo-Croatian translations",
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        "1": "From the collection of the Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.",
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      "name": "refn"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From the Bible account of the poor widow’s donation of two mites (or leptons, small coins of low value) to the temple contribution box, which Jesus Christ praised as more than the gifts presented by wealthy people, for “[a]ll these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on”: Luke 21:1–4 (New International Version); see also Mark 12:38–44.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "widow's mites",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
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      "args": {},
      "expansion": "widow's mite (plural widow's mites)",
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1662, George Lawson, chapter XIII, in An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrewes. […], London: Printed by J. S. for George Sawbridge, […], →OCLC, verse 16, page 354:",
          "text": "The matter of this Duty, is ſomething of theſe worldly Goods which God hath given us, are juſtly our own, and which we may ſpare, though never ſo little, if but the poor Widow's mite: for God requires our Charity according to our portion, we must give willingly and plentifully.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Fast-fish and Loose-fish”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 443:",
          "text": "What are the sinews and souls of Russian serfs and Republican slaves but Fast-Fish, whereof possession is the whole of the law? What to the rapacious landlord is the widow's last mite but a Fast-Fish?",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1857, Frederick Locker, “The Widow’s Mite”, in London Lyrics, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, page 72:",
          "text": "The widow had but only one, / A puny and decrepid son; / But day and night, / Though fretful oft, and weak, and small, / A loving child, he was her all— / The widow's mite.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1866, [Elizabeth Rundle Charles], chapter VII, in The Draytons and the Davenants: A Story of the Civil Wars, author’s edition, New York, N.Y.: M. W. Dodd, […], →OCLC, page 270:",
          "text": "“A mite and the ‘widow’s mite,’ are some way apart, my dear,” said Aunt Dorothy; “your ‘widow’s mite,’ I suppose, might be the parsonage and the glebe, and those cows in your uncle’s park and meadow. Take care what you offer to the Lord. He sometimes takes us at our word. And there are plunderers abroad who take their own estimate of people’s mites, widows’ and others.”",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 13: Nausicaa]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 363:",
          "text": "That widow on Monday was it outside Cramer's that looked at me. Buried the poor husband but progressing favorably on the premium. Her widow's mite.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008, Gwynne Forster, chapter 1, in What Matters Most (Arabesque Contemporary Romance), Washington, D.C.: Kimani Press, →ISBN:",
          "text": "After the woman who gave me those ties left me that day, a cloud of guilt hung over me, and I couldn't shake it. It stayed with me through the night. I couldn't sleep. The woman was in her late sixties at the least, and she walked as if she carried the world on her shoulders. But she'd found a way to thank me. And I knew it was the widow's mite.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
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      ],
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          "gift",
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          "donation"
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          "represent"
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          "sacrifice#Noun"
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          "giver"
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        "(idiomatic) A very small gift or donation which, however, represents a great sacrifice on the part of the giver."
      ],
      "tags": [
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          "ref": "2002, Ralph L. Stephenson, chapter 6, in The Biblical Guide to Wealth, Health, and Happiness, Victoria, B.C.: Trafford Publishing, page 131:",
          "text": "Leptons became famous as the \"widows mites\" when Christ observed a widow donating two of them to the temple treasury. Christ noted that she had donated more than everyone else had because that was all she had. The two mites were worth about 70 cents to one dollar in modern buying power, or about enough for a meal of beans.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The lepton coin."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "numismatics",
          "numismatics"
        ],
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          "lepton",
          "lepton"
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(numismatics) The lepton coin."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "hobbies",
        "lifestyle",
        "numismatics"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈwɪdəʊz ˈmaɪt/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈwɪdoʊz ˈmaɪt/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
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      "audio": "en-au-widow's mite.ogg",
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      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/En-au-widow%27s_mite.ogg"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-aɪt"
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  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "very small gift or donation",
      "word": "lesken ropo"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "very small gift or donation",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "denier de la veuve"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "very small gift or donation",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "Scherflein"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "very small gift or donation",
      "word": "szegény özvegy(asszony) két fillérje"
    },
    {
      "code": "ga",
      "lang": "Irish",
      "sense": "very small gift or donation",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "cianóg na baintrí"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "very small gift or donation",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "wdowi grosz"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "lépta",
      "sense": "very small gift or donation",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "ле́пта"
    },
    {
      "code": "sh",
      "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
      "sense": "very small gift or donation",
      "tags": [
        "Cyrillic",
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "цр̏кавица"
    },
    {
      "code": "sh",
      "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
      "sense": "very small gift or donation",
      "tags": [
        "Roman",
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "cȑkavica"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "João Zeferino da Costa",
    "Museu Nacional de Belas Artes",
    "New International Version"
  ],
  "word": "widow's mite"
}

Download raw JSONL data for widow's mite meaning in All languages combined (7.2kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.