What is a WIDGET?

I have been wondering what this really is... on my laptop its a clock (or so my son says!). I thought I should look it up and find out for myself.

Here it is from Wikipedia... Im not sure if this really helps though...

Widget may refer to:
Widget (economics), a placeholder name for an object or, more specifically, a mechanical or other manufactured device
Widget (beer), a coil-like device placed in the bottom of cans and bottles of beer to aid in the generation of froth
Widget (comics), a character in Marvel Comics
Widget (TV series), a 1990s animated television series
nickname of the New York World Journal Tribune, a defunct newspaper
In computing, the term has become frequently used to refer to objects on a computer screen the user interacts with:
GUI widget, a component of a graphical user interface with which a user interacts
Widget toolkit, a software library containing a collection of GUI widgets that collaborate when used in the construction of applications
Web widget, a physically-inspired applet on the web
Widget engine, a software system for running applets on the web, desktop or mobile phone