alewife
1 Americannoun
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alewives
plural
noun
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alewives
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of alewife1
1625–35, earlier allowes, perhaps influenced by alewife 2, probably < French alose shad < Gallo-Latin alausa
Origin of alewife2
Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400; see origin at ale, wife
Explanation
An alewife is a small fish, a type of herring. Alewives are found in the Atlantic Ocean, primarily in the Northeast of the US and Canada. In Maine, the alewife is used for bait in lobster traps, and it's also eaten by people, often smoked. There are different names for alewives in different locations, including gaspereau in Atlantic Canada and kiack in Nova Scotia. In the 14th century, an alewife was a tavern or bar keeper's wife: the fish got the name in the 1600s, as a kind of bad joke, from the shape of its rounded abdomen.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The alewife has several advantages over other fish facing threats: It’s adaptable, willing to swim up another stream when a beaver has blocked its way.
From Slate ● Jun. 10, 2016
She sent me a quote from the minutes of a 1792 Woolwich town meeting where citizens prevented overfishing by setting alewife harvest days and established fines for those who “transgrefsed.”
From Slate ● Jun. 10, 2016
As some of you correctly noted, this man is holding an alewife, also known as a herring.
From New York Times ● Apr. 13, 2011
Originally an ocean fish, the alewife could not penetrate very far into the Great Lakes until the 1930s, when rebuilding of the Welland Canal provided it with a convenient bypass around Niagara Falls.
From Time Magazine Archive
He had had no breakfast and for supper the night before only one salt alewife and a mug of milk.
From "Johnny Tremain" by Esther Hoskins Forbes
They learned a similar situation had occurred in the Great Lakes in the 1960s, when lake trout had exhibited similar behaviors after gorging on alewives, another fish chock-full of thiaminase.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 3, 2023
"Those dams are preventing other native species like American shad, alewives, blueback herring and American eel from accessing large amounts of historic habitat," says Burrows.
From Salon ● Apr. 11, 2021
Witches in tall black hats, also called alewives, brewsters and brewesses, tended caldrons they stirred with twisted twigs and kept cats to ward off rats.
From New York Times ● Nov. 24, 2020
Little herrings called alewives swim through the brownish water.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 13, 2019
So numerous were the fish, and so driven, that when mischievous boys walled off the stream with stones the alewives would leap the barrier—silver bodies gleaming in the sun— and proceed upstream.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
