old wife

plural old wives

1. An old woman, later especially one who tells old wives' tales.First known use 9th c.

   Once John, being overtaken in drink on the roadside by the cottage, and dreaming that he was burning in hell, awoke and saw the old wife hobbling toward him. Thereupon he fled soberly to the hills, and from that day became a quiet-living, humble-minded Christian.

   1902 January, John Buchan, “The Outgoing of the Tide”, in The Watcher by the Threshold, and Other Tales, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, published 1902, →OCLC, pages 230–231

2. Any of various marine fishes :
   1. the alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus)First known use 16th c.
   2. A species of perciform fish endemic to the temperate coastal waters of Australia (Enoplosus armatus)First known use 16th c.
   3. Balistes vetula (Queen triggerfish)First known use 16th c.
   4. Certain spot-tail porgies (Diplodus ascensionis, Diplodus helenae)First known use 16th c.
   5. Spondyliosoma cantharus (black seabream)First known use 16th c.
   6. Trachinotus goodei (great pompano)First known use 16th c.
   7. A wrasseFirst known use 16th c.
3. CanadaUSarchaicThe long-tailed duck, Clangula hyemalis.First known use 17th c.

   The Oldvvives, be a foule that never leave tatling day or night, ſomething bigger than a Ducke.

   1634, William Wood, “Of the Birds and Fowles both of Land and Water”, in New Englands Prospect. A True, Lively, and Experimentall Description of that Part of America, Commonly Called New England; […], London: […] Tho[mas] Cotes, for Iohn Bellamie, […], →OCLC, 1st part, page 31

4. ScotlandA chimney cap to prevent smoking.First known use 19th c.