woman of the house
1
3.7
- noun
- Archaic
:
mujer de la casa
- As the woman of the house, she ensured that everything ran smoothly while her husband was at work.
She's hired by the grandma, the old woman of the house to help her grandson.
- She's hired by the grandma, the old woman of the house to help her grandson.
Examples
-
Before, I had just been the woman of the house.
-
- So, in effect you became the woman of the house.
-
Where is the woman of the house?
-
Woman of the house, your son is home.
-
As the woman of the house where the ritual was taking place and the young woman the roadman had chosen to honor?
Fiction book (1993) -
He said that now that my adoptive mom didn't live there anymore, I was the woman of the house.
Fiction book (2002) -
When guests arrived, the woman of the house welcomed them warmly and offered refreshments.
-
After the kids left for school, the woman of the house organized the household chores for the day.
Synonyms
80
1.4
A married woman who manages her home and cares for her family
28
2.7
A person who manages a home and cares for their family
9
3.9
A woman who runs the home and cares for the family
3
8.9
A woman who runs her home and cares for her family
1
9.9
A married woman who manages the home in old times
A woman who leads and cares for her family
How Domestic
3
2.8
- Archaic
1
3.7
8
2.0
17
2.3
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is compositionally built from 'woman' + 'of the house' (a possessive/locative relationship), so a learner who knows the words can infer it refers to the woman belonging to or responsible for the household (often the wife). This structure and sense are cross-linguistically common, making the phrase directly comprehensible to a B1 learner who knows the constituents.
Etymology
Woman of the house comes from older family life when the woman who ran the house looked after the daily work, guests and children while the husband earned money. That's why today it means 'the wife who manages the household'.