fishwife
Americannoun
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fishwives
plural
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a woman who sells fish.
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a coarse-mannered, vulgar-tongued woman.
noun
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a woman who sells fish
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a coarse scolding woman
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of fishwife
First recorded in 1375–1425, fishwife is from the late Middle English word fisshwyf. See fish, wife
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:
If the history of the hoax is an ancient and labyrinthine city, then Young has explored every alleyway, gossiped with every fishwife, drunk in every bar in town.
From Slate ● Nov. 30, 2017
Her high-profile roles have been peppered with projects like a concept album about the Pendle Witch Trials, playing Hamlet on stage - and now writing a play about a Hull fishwife.
From BBC ● Oct. 25, 2017
A Canadian waitress who swears like a fishwife goes on holiday to Boracay.
From New York Times ● Jun. 1, 2016
In Part 2, we turn to the story of glamorous and inaccessible Mathilde—who, we learn, was born in France, as Aurélie, her mother a fishwife in Nantes, her father a stonemason.
From The New Yorker ● Nov. 2, 2015
Stannis rubbed the back of his neck, “You haggle like a crone with a codfish, Lord Snow. Did Ned Stark father you on some fishwife? How many men?”
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
Alloa-born artist David Allan created drawings of ordinary people going about their daily lives in Edinburgh, including soldiers, coalmen, fishwives, sedan chair porters, firemen and officers of the city guard.
From BBC ● Nov. 18, 2021
In Sutcliffe’s sepia-toned prints, Whitby appears misty, moody and — if you replace the somberly dressed fishwives with tourists — almost identical to today.
From New York Times ● Sep. 8, 2015
But that was the Ryan Women: fishwives to the marrow, they were always ready to fight and knew the places that would cut deepest.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 9, 2012
August justices of the Supreme 'Court, split with feuds, shrilled at one another like fishwives.
From Time Magazine Archive
Farther on the fishwives were crying the day’s catch, and a boy was beating time on a drum as a shabby old bear danced in a circle for a ring of river runners.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
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