Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A woman joined to a man in marriage; a female spouse.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A woman: now only in rural or provincial use, especially in Scotland, and usually with an adjective, or in composition with a noun, implying a woman of humble position: as, old wives' tales; a fish wife.
- n. The mistress of a house; a hostess: called more distinctively the goodwife (correlative to goodman) or the housewīfe.
- n. A woman who is united to a man in the lawful bonds of wedlock; a man's spouse: the correlative of husband.
- To take a wife; marry.
Wiktionary
- n. A married woman, especially in relation to her spouse.
- n. The female of a pair of mated animals.
- n. A woman (compare old wife and aad wife).
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A woman; an adult female; -- now used in literature only in certain compounds and phrases, as ale
wife , fishwife , goodwife , and the like. - n. The lawful consort of a man; a woman who is united to a man in wedlock; a woman who has a husband; a married woman; -- correlative of
husband .
WordNet 3.0
- n. a married woman; a man's partner in marriage
Etymologies
- Middle English wif, from Old English wīf; see ghwībh- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“Everything will depend on my wife -- [_relishing the word_] my _wife_.”
“Oh, no! "He is asking the spirit of his wife to go with him when he goes fishing, and make him successful also when he goes hunting, or goes to battle," etc.; his last request being, "_And please don't be angry if I get another wife_!”
“Far instance, if the claimant be a mother, the affidavit must state that there is living neither wife, child or father of the deceased; if the father, that there is neither wife or child; and if the child, that there is no widowed wife*”
“In _Coriolanus_, Shakespeare makes Volumnia the mother, and Virgilia the wife, of Coriolanus; but his _wife_ was Volumnia, and his _mother_”
“Sir, I have known what it was to have a wife, and (in a solemn tender faultering tone) I have known what it was to _lose a wife_.”
“Though she is named after the wife of the founder of the Taggart Transcontinental Railroad (Nathanial Taggart, whose statue still stands in the New York Terminal), her brother once said that she reminded people more of Nat Taggart than of his wife& amp; mdash; a comparison that she has always taken as a compliment.”
“_Ferondo, having swallowed a certain powder, is entombed for dead and being taken forth of the sepulchre by the abbot, who enjoyeth his wife the while, is put in prison and given to believe that he is in purgatory; after which, being raised up again, he reareth for his own a child begotten of the abbot on his wife_ 169”
“a wife (and no woman not a _wife_, do we believe fully competent to write on this subject), recently met our eyes in the pages of a periodical.”
“Unbecoming as they are in a young unmarried female, a much stricter sense of decorum, a vastly different repose and reserve of manner, are absolutely essential in a wife; and it is as a _wife_, Kate, that I am now addressing you. ”
“Even if you yourself were dying you should be my wife -- _my wife_ -- first. ”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘wife’.
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Words that shouldn't be used on a first date.
probation, trekkie, wart, unemployed, fetish, suspended driver'..., felon, aerophagia, undies, debt collector, girlfriend, boyfriend and 261 more...
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Wives
alewife, fishwife, midwife, kalewife, goodwife, housewife, oldwife, old wives' tale, wife, wives, husband and wife, man and wife and 16 more...
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Words that should be heard in songs more often
Inspired by PossibleUnderscore's list of words overused in modern pop music.
giant squid, bamboo, colonic, herbivore, raptor, dodecahedron, largesse, sinuses, dim sum, carburetor, transubstantiation, wife and 54 more...
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Mawidge is what bwings us togevaah
Love and marriage, love and marriage, go together like a horse and carriage . . .
chichevache, bicorne, uxorovalent, uxoravalent, uxorious, unfellowed, azygophrenia, agapetae, agunah, anaxiphilia, anuloma, pratiloma and 28 more...
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