wives

a good husband makes a good wife

proverb If a husband treats his wife well, she will treat him well in return. I do the dishes because it gives Shannon much needed time to relax, and a good husband makes a good wife.
See also: good, husband, make, wife

left-handed wife

obsolete A mistress. If you're just his left-handed wife, you do realize that you have no claim to his financial assets, yes?
See also: wife

old wives' tale

A now-debunked story or idea that was once believed, often superstitiously. How can you believe in that old wives' tale? Oh, that's just an old wives' tale! A broken mirror does not guarantee seven years' bad luck.
See also: old, tale
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

A good husband makes a good wife.

 and A good Jack makes a good Jill.
Prov. If a husband or man wants his wife or girlfriend to be respectful and loving to him, he should be respectful and loving to her. Don't blame your wife for being short-tempered with you; you've been so unpleasant to her lately. A good husband makes a good wife.
See also: good, husband, make, wife

old wives' tale

Fig. a myth or superstition. You really don't believe that stuff about starving a cold do you? It's just an old wives' tale.
See also: old, tale
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

old wives' tale

A superstition, as in Toads cause warts? That's an old wives' tale. This expression was already known in ancient Greece, and a version in English was recorded in 1387. Despite invoking bigoted stereotypes of women and old people, it survives.
See also: old, tale
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

an old wives' tale

COMMON An old wives' tale is a belief that a lot of people have that is based on traditional ideas, often ones which have been proved to be incorrect. My mother used to tell me to feed a cold and starve a fever. Is it just an old wives' tale? It's not just an old wives' tale, you know, that full moons and madness go together.
See also: old, tale
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.

an old wives' tale

a widely held traditional belief that is now thought to be unscientific or incorrect.
The phrase (and its earlier variant old wives' fable ) is recorded from the early 16th century, with the earliest example being from Tyndale's translation of the Bible.
See also: old, tale
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

an old ˈwives’ tale

(disapproving) an old idea or belief that has proved not to be scientific: When you’re expecting a baby, people tell you all sorts of old wives’ tales. The belief that make-up ruins your skin is just an old wives’ tale.
See also: old, tale
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

old wives' tale

A superstitious story. This term actually dates back to Plato, who repeated the phrase in a number of writings and was so cited by Erasmus. In English a version of it appeared in John Trevisa’s translation of Polycronicon, “And useth telynges as olde wifes dooth” (1387), and then began to be used frequently from the sixteenth century on. “These are trifles and mere old wives’ tales” wrote Christopher Marlowe in Doctor Faustus (ca. 1589). Arnold Bennett used it as the title of a novel (1908), and this sex-and age-biased cliché persists to the present day.
See also: old, tale
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • it takes a village
  • village
  • teach a man to fish
  • beget
  • best-laid plans go astray, the
  • the best-laid plans
  • the best-laid plans go astray
  • the best-laid plans of mice and men
  • for want of a nail
  • For want of a nail the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe the horse ...
References in periodicals archive
Despite this dreary image of medieval marriage, wives generally accepted their position--and not just passively.
Runaway wives: husband desertion in medieval England
Some of the women might have been widows, but some probably were wives of the men with whom they camped.
Itinerating wives and Mary Magdalene
Psychologist Camille Wortman of the State University of New York at Stony Brook regards the dramatically increased risk of death among partners of recently hospitalized spouses as "amazing." Women tend to have more social support than men do, so it's surprising that hospitalization of wives wasn't harder on men in the short run than vice versa, she adds.
In sickness and in death: spouses' ills imperil partners' survival
Houppert had trouble convincing wives who opposed the Iraq war to talk to her because they did not want their views published.
Home alone: the stunted lives of military wives
I have no idea why world-class sportsmen feel the need to parade their wives in some abject show of male virility.
Richard McComb: The insanity of putting a birdie on the green
The study, commissioned by the website Tiscali.co.uk, showed seven out of 10 wives thought they were more independent than their mothers and had more money because they worked.
Modern wives 'enjoy more freedom'
To win two tickets to The Stepford Wives and the goddess kit then answer the following question.
The perfect prize
One maneuver, which is used by disputing wives, in particular when the explicit causes for marital conflicts are the economic needs of the family, is to use the material needs of their children as a main source of pressure in the battle against their husbands.
Marital problems among Arab families: between cultural and family therapy interventions
But in the present circumstance we can only assume that the discussion in Sotah is meant not to allude to a m erely technical, unmeaningful chain of events accounting for the change in order from biblical to Mishnaic but to indicate a very purposeful change in order on the basis of the subject of the seventh chapter of Ketubot in which various situations are described wherein husbands have imposed unreasonable and arbitrary hardships on their wives by the mechanism of vow-taking.
The Precarious Ties That Bind Us: Sotah 2a
I feel like I've returned to The Stepford Wives, that 1975 Ira Levin classic.
Surrendered Wives
The only planned official event involving the wives of the G-8 leaders will not now take place as Chieko Mori, wife of Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, is the only wife who will accompany her husband to the G-8 summit there from Friday to Sunday, they said.
G-8 leaders' wives not to visit peace memorial in Okinawa
A recent article in Fortune magazine reported that of the country's "50 most powerful women" nearly 10 percent had husbands who had stepped back from their own careers in deference to those of their wives.
Today's CEO Spouses Speak Out
Although the presence of women in the workplace has redefined women's roles in household management, wives have retained primary responsibility for family food shopping; they continue to be the organizers and purchasing agents (Polegato and Zaichkowsky 1994).
Food Shopping Profiles of Career-oriented, Income-oriented, and At-home Wives
'I treat all my wives fairly, but I'm worried at the sudden attitudinal change of my third wife,' he said.
Man Drags Two Women To Court For Allegedly Instructing 3rd Wife To Leave Him
Plenty of scandal has surrounded the Brown family from "Sister Wives" over the years, but the latest news to be discovered about the polygamous family may be the most shocking yet.
Did Meri And Kody Brown Court An Underage Woman?