Meanings
nounorange-wife (plural orange-wives)
plural orange-wives
- obsoleteA woman who sells oranges.
You are ambitious for poor knaves' caps and legs; you wear out a good wholesome forenoon in hearing a cause between an orange-wife and a fosset-seller, and then rejourn the controversy of threepence to a second day of audience.
c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]
Cite this entry
APA
orange-wife. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/orange-wife
MLA
“orange-wife.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/orange-wife. Accessed November 4, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “orange-wife,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/orange-wife.
Source: orange-wife on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.