Forms: see WIFE sb. and -HOOD; also 6 wiue-, 7 wivehood. [f. WIFE sb. + -HOOD. (OE. had wífhád womanhood.)]
1. The position or condition of a wife; married state (of a woman).
1390. Gower, Conf., III. 51. Fro ferst that sche wifhode tok.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 526/2. Wyyfhood, uxoratus.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa (1768), IV. 305. To restore her to her Virgin State by my confession, after her Wifehood had been reported to her Uncle.
1856. Mrs. Browning, Aur. Leigh, II. 356. I ask for love … For wifehood.
1884. Leeds Mercury, 30 April, 4/5. Her daughter has now grown to womanhood, and to-day enters upon the sacred duties of wifehood.
2. The character of, or befitting, a wife; ‘behaviour becoming to a wife’ (J.); wifeliness.
c. 1385. Chaucer, L. G. W., Prol. 253. Penolope & Marcia catoun Mak of ȝoure wyfhod no comparisoun.
1390. Gower, Conf., I. 74. Withode is lore In me, which whilom was honeste.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., IV. v. 3. The vertue of chast loue, And wiuehood true.
1616. B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, I. vi. Thou, onely art to heare, not speake a word,… on your wiue-hood, wife.
a. 1625. Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, IV. iv. She hath neither manners, honesty, behaviour, Wife-hood, nor womanhood.
1830. Tennyson, Isabel, 12. The stately flower … Of perfect wifehood.
1873. Symonds, Grk. Poets, iv. 107. Plutarch’s Life of Cleomenes contains two historical pictures of heroic wifehood.
