wifish

English

Alternative forms

• wivish

Etymology

From wife +‎ -ish.

Adjective

wifish (comparative more wifish, superlative most wifish)

1. Like a wife; wifely.
   • 1882, William Senior, AKA Black Palmer, Scotch Loch-Fishing‎^[1]:

     Lastly, by all means keep the body warm, and remember that the more careful you are of yourself, even at the risk of being thought "old wifish," you will, humanly speaking, be enabled to enjoy the sport to a greater age than you might otherwise do.

   • 1890, Elizabeth Robins Pennell, Mary Wollstonecraft‎^[2]:

     But when I press anything, it is always with a true wifish submission to your judgment and inclination.

   • 1901, M.P. Shiel, The Purple Cloud‎^[3]:

     And we were wedded: for she, too, bowed the knee with me under the jovial blue sky; and under her eyes were the little moist semicircles of dreamy pensive fatigue, so dear and wifish: and God was there, and saw her kneel: for He loves the girl.

Related terms

• old-wifish