Obs. rare. [f. prec. sb.]
1. intr. To take a wife, to marry: = WIVE v. 1.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), I. 263. Þey … kepeþ besiliche here children, and suffreth hem nouȝt to wyfe wiþ ynne foure and twenty ȝere.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., xii. 97. It is sayde full ryfe, ‘a man may not wyfe And also thryfe, And all in a yere.’
1725. Bailey, Erasm. Colloq. (1878), I. 348. Eu. An’t you weary of wifeing? Po. … If this Eighth should die to Day I would marry the Ninth to-Morrow.
2. Wife it: to play the wife, act as a wife.
1599. Porter, Angry Wom. Abingt., C 3. I should Wife it as fine as any woman could.
