HOUSEWIFE (housewives)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected form: housewives   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does housewife mean? 

• HOUSEWIFE (noun)
  The noun HOUSEWIFE has 1 sense:

1. a wife who manages a household while her husband earns the family income

  Familiarity information: HOUSEWIFE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HOUSEWIFE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A wife who manages a household while her husband earns the family income

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

homemaker; housewife; lady of the house; woman of the house

Hypernyms ("housewife" is a kind of...):

married woman; wife (a married woman; a man's partner in marriage)

Derivation:

housewifely (related or suited to a housewife)

 Context examples 

The heat of these irons was different from that used by housewives.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Before the housewives could rest, several people called, and there was a scramble to get ready to see them.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

It occurs in tennis players as well as housewives, artisans, and violinists.

(Lateral Epicondylitis, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

But there I always found her, the same bright housewife; often humming her Devonshire ballads when no strange foot was coming up the stairs, and blunting the sharp boy in his official closet with melody.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It caused quite a stir in the neighborhood, and good housewives were proud to have the acquaintances of the great writer's sister, while those who had not made haste to cultivate it.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Do come and help me or I shall die! and the exhausted housewife cast herself upon his breast, giving him a sweet welcome in every sense of the word, for her pinafore had been baptized at the same time as the floor.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Rice, cooked as American housewives never cook it and can never learn to cook it, appeared on Martin's table at least once a day.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

With her pretty hair tucked into a little cap, arms bared to the elbow, and a checked apron which had a coquettish look in spite of the bib, the young housewife fell to work, feeling no doubts about her success, for hadn't she seen Hannah do it hundreds of times?

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)