Definition of fishwife in English:
fishwife
nounPlural fishwives ˈfɪʃwʌɪfˈfɪʃˌwaɪf
1A coarse-mannered woman who is prone to shouting.
the screech of a fishwife
Example sentencesExamples
- We were made to sit side by side at the table and flog our biographies like fishwives.
- We speak all the time the two of us, gossiping like a couple of old fishwives.
- We went to Venice a few days later and it was full of dirty pigeons and busloads of ghastly American tourists shrieking at each other like fishwives.
- Then there was a revolution in my building, with all these fishwives banging on my door because I'd insulted them.
- The final five minutes seem to shape the entire programme, when the two families get together and basically sling the mud like old fishwives.
2archaic A woman who sells fish.
Example sentencesExamples
- On the quayside fishwives gut fish by hand and the catch is kippered by traditional methods.
- Sometimes their existence is recorded by artists of their day, like the Newhaven fishwives photographed by Hill and Adams in 1848.
- A group of fishwives pose with a selection of crabs.
- ‘Monica will sell you a cooked fish!’ the fishwife boomed.
- Many of the fishwives travelled with the men to the fishing grounds to gut and cure so great a catch.