Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word widow's mite. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word widow's mite, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say widow's mite in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word widow's mite you have here. The definition of the word widow's mite will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofwidow's mite, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
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 “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.
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:
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.
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?
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.
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:
“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.”
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.
2008, Gwynne Forster, chapter 1, in What Matters Most (Arabesque Contemporary Romance), Washington, D.C.: Kimani Press, →ISBN:
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.
2002, Ralph L. Stephenson, chapter 6, in The Biblical Guide to Wealth, Health, and Happiness, Victoria, B.C.: Trafford Publishing, page 131:
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.
lesson of the widow's mite on Wikipedia.Wikipedia 