Definition of goodwife in English:
goodwife
nounPlural goodwives ˈɡʊdwʌɪfˈɡʊdwaɪf
Scottish archaic The female head of a household.
Example sentencesExamples
- A later purchaser was ‘George Nicoll,’ who bought it from a goodwife (whose name is illegible) for 6d.
- Farmers and artisans, goodwives and slaves - ‘the people most exposed to fortune's slings and arrows’ - adhered to an ‘ethic of fortune’ that violated Protestant orthodoxy.
- He accused goodwife Elizabeth Gregory of bewitching his daughter.
- As Callan looked at her, she realised how tired and overworked the goodwife was, and - although she had never noticed this before - how old.
- She wanted to go see goodwife Eithne's new baby, so I let her go.