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black widow definition

☆ black widow

an American spider (Latrodectus mactans), the female of which has a glossy black body with an hourglass-shaped red mark underneath, and a poisonous bite which is normally not fatal: so called because the female sometimes eats its mate

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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