house-wife

house-wife (plural house-wives)

1. Archaic form of housewife.
   • 1672, F. B., “To the Reader”, in The Office of the Good House-wife, with Necessary Directions for the Ordering of Her Family and Dairy; […], London: […] T. Ratcliffe, and N. Thompson, for Richard Mills […]:

     But let us paſs over the Sacred Hiſtories, and give me leave (following the Proverb, which ſaith, We muſt learn the manners of our Predeceſſors, and practice according to the preſent age) to lay out unto you the wayes how a good Houſe-wife (as to thoſe particular things belonging to her Charge) ſhall Order and Govern a farm, as that it may keep and maintain with the Profit and Increaſe thereof, her Husband, and all his Family, which ſhall be hereafter declared in this Tract of The Office of the good Houſe-wife; […]

   • 1702, E[dward] W[ard], Female Policy Detected: or, The Arts of a Designing Woman Laid Open, London: […] Benj. Harris […] and Vavasour Harris, […], page 116:

     How many are there not Houſe-Wives, but Drones rather? Living wholly on the Sweat of their Husbands browes, as the Drone doth on the Honey that the Bee maketh and bringeth in?

   • 1792, “Art. V. Sir Thomas More: a Tragedy. […]”, in The Monthly Review, page 397:

     My own hand / Shall do the houſe-wife’s work, ſhall ſpin and knit, / And earn by induſtry ſufficient bread.

   • 1806 March, “Biographical Sketches of Illustrious Ladies. The Second Number. Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales”, in La Belle Assemblée or, Bell’s Court and Fashionable Magazine, Addressed Particularly to the Ladies, volume I, part I, London: […] J[ohn] Bell, […], page 67, column 2:

     The boys are destined to become expert seamen, and the girls skilful, sensible, industrious house-wives,—nothing more.

   • 1836, “The Orphan Institution.—Dispersion of the Israelites—[…]”, in Dusselthal Abbey. Count Von der Recke’s Institution for Destitute Orphans and Jewish Proselytes., 2nd edition, London: James Nisbet & Co., […], page 287:

     She is a very expert and industrious house-wife; her great economy is very remarkable; she is almost always first up in the house, and sees that every one gets his food properly.

   • 1855, “The New Wife”, in Female Life Among the Mormons. A Narrative of Many Years’ Personal Experience. By the Wife of a Mormon Elder, Recently from Utah., London: G[eorge] Routledge & Co., […], page 213:

     Mr. Slocomb had been a thrifty inhabitant of the Empire State, the owner of a fine farm, stocked with fine cattle, and plenty of them, the husband of a thrifty, prudent, industrious house-wife, and the father of a fine lot of boys, of several ages, from two to twelve.

   • 1894 June, Laurence Hutton, “Literary Notes”, in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, volume LXXXIX, number DXXIX, page 4, column 2:

     How concentrated and how pungent are the fiction and romance displayed by the average waitress, all expert house-wives know too well, and too much to their own cost. She can tell more short stories in a month about teacups shedding their own handles, about dinner[-]plates nicking each other, and about wine[-]glasses breaking themselves, than the reviewer could notice in these columns in a year.