Meanings
comparative more housewively · superlative most housewively
- 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 1665 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 11AThe 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 68It 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 41With 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 188I 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
housewively. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/housewively
“housewively.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/housewively. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “housewively,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/housewively.
Source: housewively on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.