old-wivish

See also: old wivish

English

Adjective

old-wivish (comparative more old-wivish, superlative most old-wivish)

1. Alternative form of old-wifish.
   • 1840 September, “Robert Owen and Socialism”, in Tait’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume VII, number LXXXI, Edinburgh: William Tait, […]; Simpkin, Marshall, & Co., London; and John Cumming, Dublin, page 550, column 2:

     As it is, however, if the House of Lords continue to prate the same old-wivish drivel they have been doing for the last twenty years, in this case, against French revolutions, and Prussian Agrarian Laws, we will not warrant the English nobility.

   • 1865, George Mac Donald, chapter I, in Alec Forbes of Howglen, volume I, London: Hurst and Blackett, […], page 5:

     “Tak’ a drappy mair, sir,” he whispered in a coaxing, old-wivish tone; “it’s a lang road to the kirkyard.”

   • 1928 November, Regina Miriam Bloch, “[Reviews] Prophezeiungen: Alter Aberglaube oder neue Wahrheit. By Dr. Max Kemmerich. 3rd edition. Aus der Geschichte der menschlichen Dummheit. By Dr. Max Kemmerich. […]”, in The Occult Review, volume XLVIII, number 5, London: Rider & Co., page 359:

     The foolish squabblings of old-wivish theologians over unimportant issues in Holy Writ, the sick frenzies of fanatical Catholics and Calvinists, the spiritual darkness of the Middle Ages and bygone centuries, none of these escape the whip of the author, who scourges them as the usurers driven from the Temple of God.

   • 1954, Edwin R. Hunter, “Manner Of Speech As An Aspect Of Shakspere’s Characterization”, in Shakspere and Common Sense, Boston, Mass.: The Christopher Publishing House, page 268:

     There is also her sadly beautiful but rambling old-wivish account of the last hours of Falstaff (H V, II, iii, 9-28).

   • 1960 June 21, Roz Young, “Home Run King”, in Dayton Daily News, volume 83, number 306, Dayton, Oh., page 20, column 1:

     SOMEBODY ELSE said that moles will leave the yard of anybody who plants castor beans. Mary thinks this suggestion is a little old-wivish. She wants more direct action. Any ideas?

   • 1967, James Rieger, “The Rosy Cross and the Wandering Jew”, in The Mutiny Within: The Heresies of Percy Bysshe Shelley, New York, N.Y.: George Braziller, →LCCN, page 61:

     So long as he raved through the mouth of a fabulous Hebrew and reveled in old-wivish misconstructions of the book of nature, these ruling-class academies were prepared to tolerate his assaults upon the ethos of that class.