wife

plural wives

1. A married woman, especially in relation to her spouse.

   The Fisherman and His Wife

   5 more examples

   And I geue vnto the ſame Elizabeth my wif the ſparuers and hangings of the ſame twoo beddes vſuallye occupied, and hanging ouer and about the ſame twoo beddes[…]

   1558 April 29, Sir William Drurye, Will of Sir William Drurye [of Hawstede, Suffolk], Prerogative Court of Canterbury, page 1

   This was a very hard problem; and the Rajah thought and thought, as hard as a Malay Rajah can be expected to think, but could not solve it; and so he was very unhappy, and did nothing but smoke and chew betel with his favourite wife, and eat scarcely anything; and even when he went to the cock-fight did not seem to care whether his best birds won or lost.

   1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume I, London: Macmillan and Co., page 278

   It was a joy to snatch some brief respite, and find himself in the rectory drawing–room. Listening here was as pleasant as talking; just to watch was pleasant. The young priests who lived here wore cassocks and birettas; their faces were fine and mild, yet really strong, like the rector's face; and in their intercourse with him and his wife they seemed to be brothers.

   1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter X, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

   1952, P. G. Wodehouse, Big Business, in 'A Few Quick Ones', Everyman, London: 2009, p 127-8. All through Reginald's deeply moving performance she had sat breathless, her mind in a whirl and her soul stirred to her very depths. With each low note that he pulled up from the soles of his shoes she could feel the old affection and esteem surging back into her with a whoosh, and long before he had taken his sixth bow she knew ... that it would be madness to try to seek happiness elsewhere, particularly as the wife of a man with large ears and no chin, who looked as if he were about to start in the two-thirty race at Kempton Park.

   Despite personal schisms and differences in spiritual experience, there is a very coherent theology of Snape shared between the wives. To examine this manifestation of religious fandom, I will first discuss the canon scepticism and anti-Rowling sentiment that helps to contextualise the wider belief in Snape as a character who extends beyond book and film.

   2014 March 3, Zoe Alderton, “‘Snapewives’ and ‘Snapeism’: A Fiction-Based Religion within the Harry Potter Fandom”, in Religions, volume 5, number 1, MDPI, →DOI, pages 219–257

   Synonyms: little woman

2. The female of a pair of mated animals.

   A new wife for the gander is introduced into the pen.

   1 more example

   I stepped out and advanced valiantly upon a long-maned bull in the midst of his wives. I was armed with the regular club with which the boat-pullers killed the wounded seals gaffed aboard by the hunters.

   1904, Jack London, chapter 30, in The Sea-Wolf (Macmillan’s Standard Library), New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC

3. Scotlandotherwise puristicSynonym of woman.

   Synonyms: woman

present singular third person wifes · participle present wifing · participle past wifed · past wifed

1. colloquialTo marry (a woman).

   Mentally scarred for life, love is war / And some chicks are just too hard to wife

   2004, “Guinnesses”, in Mm..Food, performed by MF Doom ft. Angelika & 4-IZE

   3 more examples

   Mecca knew she wasn't lying. She had the type of beauty that made niggas want to wife her.

   2009, Ashley Antoinette Coleman, JaQuavis Coleman, The Cartel, volume 1, →ISBN, page 106

   I thought that I was going to wife her, but because of the new news with my brother I couldn't do it.

   2010, Kenya K. Watkins, The Life You Choose, →ISBN, page 154

   But I told you that you're not a wifeable woman, and I told him so, and he wanted to wife you anyway.

   2016, Gayl Jones, The Healing, →ISBN

   Synonyms: bewife, take to wife, wive