housewife

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A woman whose main employment is homemaking, maintaining the upkeep of her home and tending to household affairs; often, such a woman whose sole [unpaid] employment is homemaking.

   2000, Uli Kusch, "Mr. Torture", Helloween, The Dark Ride Mr Torture sells pain / To the housewives in Spain / He knows just what they crave / Mr Torture

2. 2
   noun

   A little case or bag for materials used in sewing, and for other articles of female work.

   It was a housewife, containing needles, a bodkin, and thread; ‘and, do you know,’ added he, ‘it was the most useful thing she could have given me, for it lasted all the time I was at Rome to mend my clothes with […].’

3. 3
   verb

   Alternative form of housewive.

   Career opportunity […] is the one who never knocks — especially not on the doors of women, who are still hooking, housewifing and hairdressing for their livings.

4. 4
   noun

   a wife who manages a household while her husband earns the family income

5. 5
   noun

   The wife of a householder; the mistress of a family; the female head of a household.

6. 6
   noun

   A worthless woman; a hussy.

Etymology

From Middle English houswyf, housewif, huswijf, equivalent to house + wife; a doublet of hussy, which it was long distinguished from and displaced due to gradual negative connotation (see Online Etymology Dictionary entry). Cognate with West Frisian húswiif, Dutch huiswijf, German Low German Huuswief, German Hausweib.