widow-maker trail
- noun
- US
- The ranger warned us that the widow-maker trail should only be attempted by experienced hikers.
Examples
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The ranger advised against hiking the widow-maker trail due to its steep drops and treacherous paths.
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Many accidents have occurred on the notorious widow-maker trail in recent years.
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Despite the risks, thrill-seekers are often drawn to the challenging widow-maker trail.
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The widow-maker trail is not for the faint-hearted.
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Have you ever hiked the widow-maker trail?
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Each year, numerous hikers are rescued from the dangerous widow-maker trail after underestimating its challenges.
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Before attempting the widow-maker trail, it is crucial to check the weather conditions and your own skill level.
Synonyms
1
9.9
A hiking path that is very dangerous and often causes injury or death for hikers
How Dangerous
Surface Forms
Morphology
widow-maker + trail
The element 'trail' is fully transparent as a path, and 'widow-maker' is compositionally analyzable from 'widow' + 'maker' (i.e. something that would create widows, implying it causes deaths). However, this is a metaphorical naming convention that requires the learner to infer agentive 'maker' + cultural use of 'widow-maker' for lethal hazards, so the meaning is only partially predictable to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Widow-maker trail comes from the old phrase widow-maker, used for things that can kill you—like a heavy dead branch that falls or a sudden steep drop. People began to call a very dangerous path a widow-maker trail because it could leave a spouse alone, so today it means a trail that is especially dangerous and could cause someone 'to die'.