housewively

H4O1U1S1E1W4I1V4E1L1Y4

A form of housewifely — Befitting a housewife.

Scrabble 23

Meanings

adjectivehousewively (comparative more housewively, superlative most housewively)

comparative more housewively · superlative most housewively

  1. alternativeAlternative form of housewifely.

    It is ſpoken of a houſewively maid that grows idle after marriage.

    1670, J[ohn] R[ay], A Collection of English Proverbs Digested into a Convenient Method for the Speedy Finding Any One upon Occasion; with Short Annotations. […], Cambridge, Cambs: […] John Hayes, […], for W[illiam] Morden, page 166
    5 more examples

    The sweet-frosted dream of Ms. Tranor’s generation turned into the bitter bread of struggle. Housewively boredom did much to end the American dream. By grasping, they lost.

    1992 April 2, A.E. Ayotte, “Losing the American dream”, in Tallahassee Democrat, 87th year, number 93, page 11A

    The clearest form of discrimination was at higher education level where 2-year community colleges in effect prepared young women for marriage and housewively duties.

    1995, Martin McLean, “Norms of educational access”, in Educational Traditions Compared: Content, Teaching and Learning in Industrialised Countries, London: David Fulton Publishers, →ISBN, part 1 (Educational Traditions), page 68

    It appears that by this time it was acceptable for women in England to be selling ale outside the home, and to take the consequences. What had started as a housewively task had become a trade.

    1997, Moira Plant, “Alcohol Throughout the Ages”, in Women and Alcohol: Contemporary and Historical Perspectives, London; New York, N.Y.: Free Association Books, →ISBN, page 41

    With the end of the war, there was a resurgence of pre-war gender roles: many women who had taken jobs in the public sphere during the war were unceremoniously fired and returned to the domestic sphere, where they were once again expected to perform traditional housewively duties, while men were expected to take up the role of provider and breadwinner.

    2002, Rebecca Carpenter, “Male Failure and Male Fantasy: British Masculine Mythologies of the 1950s, or Jimmy, Jim, and Bond. James Bond.”, in The Minnesota Review, page 188

    I avoid swamping the reader in the stereotyped recurrent housewively discourse.

    2005, Rudrani Fakir, The Goddess and the Slave: The Fakir, the Mother and Maldevelopment, Varanasi: Indica Books, →ISBN, page 228
Cite this entry
APA

housewively. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/housewively

MLA

“housewively.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/housewively. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “housewively,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/housewively.

Source: housewively on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.