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broadwife

American

[brawd-wahyf] / ˈbrɔdˌwaɪf /

noun

U.S. History.

an enslaved woman whose husband was enslaved on a different plantation.

Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

noun

broadwives

plural

Etymology

Origin of broadwife

First recorded in 1855–60; shortening of abroad + wife

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.