Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A housewife.
- n. A pert, wilful woman or girl; a hussy. See hussy, 2.
- To manage with economy and frugality: said of a woman.
- n. Same as housewife.
Wiktionary
- n. obsolete A housewife.
- n. obsolete A worthless woman; hussy.
- n. A small case containing scissors, thread, needles, and other sewing things.
- v. said of a woman To manage with frugality.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A female housekeeper; a woman who manages domestic affairs; a thirfty woman.
- n. obsolete A worthless woman; a hussy.
- n. A case for sewing materials. See Housewife.
- v. To manage with frugality; -- said of a woman.
Etymologies
- From Middle English, equivalent to house + wife. See also hussy. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“It contained a huswife completely furnished with needles,”
“I was sure it could not be far off; but I had put my huswife upon it, you see, without being aware, and so it was quite hid, but I had it in my hand so very lately that I was almost sure it must be on the table.”
“_I must needs say, that my wife is a shrewe, but such a huswife as I know but a fewe.”
“Shee's any good man's better second selfe, the very mirror of true constant modesty, the carefull huswife of frugalitie, and dearest obiect of man's heart's felicitie.”
Microcosmography or, a Piece of the World Discovered; in Essays and Characters
“Come, lay aside your stitchery; I must have you play the idle huswife with me this afternoon.”
“In a place to themselves were other treasures, a daguerreotype of his mother, a capacious huswife that Sairy had made and stocked for him, the little box of paper "to write home on" that had been Tom's present, various trifles that the three had agreed might come in handy.”
“In a cottage garden the dog, high on his haunches at the length of his chain, cocked his ears towards the huswife in the wash-house, hoping against hope for a miracle.”
“Tusser's huswife, warned by the matin cock, called up her maids and men at four in the summer, at five in the winter.”
“They call thee good huswife -- they love thee likewise.”
“The roadman straightened himself and leaned upon his mattock; the huswife shut the back door, and the dog crept into his barrel.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘huswife’.
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Brochettes of Random Palavery
Another of my random palavery lists for words or phrases that haven't yet found a place in one or more of my other lists.
nonexclusivity, adaptationist, paxillin, adduct, unblushingly cribbed, ptomaïne, microsievert, millisievert, too big to jail, tastemaker, tinsmithing, Nimzo-Indian and 1616 more...
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18th century british
from Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer, Christopher Smart's Jubilate Agno, Richard Brinsley Sheridan's School for Scandal ...
intimacy, piety, partiality, sentimental, plasters, mawkish, drab, spurious, sententious, bitters, folly, virtue and 132 more...
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