archwife

plural archwives

1. A big, masculine wife; a dominating woman; virago.

   You archwives, strong as camels, take the high And overpowering hand against the male.

   1977, Geoffrey Chaucer, Theodore Morrison, The Portable Chaucer: Revised Edition

   4 more examples

   Lady Wallingford had been circulating defamatory libels against Buckingham, leading James to comment that Wallingford was like his father-in-law, 'altogether guided and overruled by an archwife'.

   2002, Pauline Croft, King James

   "To pay homage to the World Harlot, the Mandrake Venus, the Archwife, the Ever-existing, who has been, is, and will be. […]"

   2003, Stephanie Forward, Dreams, Visions and Realities, page 3

   All the same, Master Kit, it looks like you're in a case of pickles – if her ma's half the archwife the postboy says she is! Seems to me you'll have to hang up your axe.'

   2008, Georgette Heyer, False Colours, page 191

   Some poor fool might have been saved a lifetime of misery if the archwife had drowned in the ditch after all.

   2013, Barbara Metzger, Greetings of the Season and Other Stories