Dictionary

old wife en · NOUN

Etymology

From Middle English ald wyf, eld wiif, olde wyffe.

Meanings

1. An old woman, later especially one who tells old wives' tales.
   • Once John, being overtaken in drink on the roadside by the cottage, and dreaming that he was burning in hell, awoke and saw the old wife hobbling toward him. Thereupon he fled soberly to the hills, and from that day became a quiet-living, humble-minded Christian. 1902 January, John Buchan, “The Outgoing of the Tide”, in The Watcher by the Threshold, and Other Tales, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, published 1902, →OCLC, pages 230–231:
2. Any of various marine fishes : ▸ the alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus)
3. Any of various marine fishes : ▸ A species of perciform fish endemic to the temperate coastal waters of Australia (Enoplosus armatus)
4. Any of various marine fishes : ▸ Balistes vetula (Queen triggerfish)
5. Any of various marine fishes : ▸ Certain spot-tail porgies (Diplodus ascensionis, Diplodus helenae)
6. Any of various marine fishes : ▸ Spondyliosoma cantharus (black seabream)
7. Any of various marine fishes : ▸ Trachinotus goodei (great pompano)
8. Any of various marine fishes : ▸ A wrasse
9. (Canada, US, archaic) The long-tailed duck, Clangula hyemalis.
   • The Oldvvives, be a foule that never leave tatling day or night, ſomething bigger than a Ducke. 1634, William Wood, “Of the Birds and Fowles both of Land and Water”, in New Englands Prospect. A True, Lively, and Experimentall Description of that Part of America, Commonly Called New England; […], London: […] Tho[mas] Cotes, for Iohn Bellamie, […], →OCLC, 1st part, page 31:
10. (Scotland) A chimney cap to prevent smoking.

Forms

Deriveds

old wives' tale · old-wifery · old-wifish · old-wifely

Relateds

oldwife · oldwife · oldwife · oldwife · oldwife · oldwife · oldwife