Word.ws English Dictionary

old-wifish

old-wifish adjective: resembling or characteristic of an old wife.

Adjective

old-wifish (comparative more old-wifish, superlative most old-wifish)

  1. Resembling or characteristic of an old wife.
    • As for vngooſtly and olde wyueſh fables, caſt them awaye, but exercyſe thy ſelfe vnto godlynes.1535 October 14 (Gregorian calendar), Myles Coverdale, transl., Biblia: The Byble, […] (Coverdale Bible), [Cologne or Marburg]: [Eucharius Cervicornus and Johannes Soter?], →OCLC, I. Timothy...
    • But I wil ceaſe my cõplayning ſeing I know that now is the latter tyme wherof the prophetes / chriſt / and the apoſtles did prophecy that there ſhuld come falſe prophetes which ſhuld face out the goſpel and imagyne a newe goſpel euen ſtynking / hethenyſſh / old wiuyſſh and capcyos fables inuented...[1544], Alexãder Alane, Of the Auctorite of the Word of God Agaynst the Bisshop of London […], [Strasbourg]: [W. Köpfel?]

Examples of old-wifish in a sentence

  • The Somerville History I have seen, and must seriously beseech you to publish it, as it is replete with entertainment,—full of lies, certes,—but the gossip of an old-wifish lord, which is excellent.1811, Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, “C. Kirkpatrick Sharpe to Walter Scott, Esq.”, in Alexander Allardyce, editor, Letters from and to...
  • Paul brands as ‘profane and old-wifish myths’ (1 Ti 4⁷).1906, David Smith, “Education”, in James Hastings, John A[lexander] Selbie, John C[hisholm] Lambert, editors, A Dictionary of Christ and...

Forms of old-wifish

comparativemore old-wifish
superlativemost old-wifish
alternative formold wivish
alternative formold-wivish

Origin of old-wifish

From old wife + -ish.

Questions about old-wifish

What does old-wifish mean?
Old-wifish means resembling or characteristic of an old wife.
How do you use old-wifish in a sentence?
The Somerville History I have seen, and must seriously beseech you to publish it, as it is replete with entertainment,—full of lies, certes,—but the gossip of an old-wifish lord, which is excellent.
What part of speech is old-wifish?
Old-wifish is an adjective.

Words near old-wifish in the dictionary

  1. old-timey
  2. old-timeyness
  3. old-timier
  4. old-timiest
  5. old-timy
  6. old-wifish
  7. old-wivish
  8. old-womanish
  9. old-womanishly
  10. old-world
  11. old-worldly

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: old-wifish (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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