(see below).
† 1. A woman in childbed, or who has lately borne a child. Obs.
1485. Inv., in J. M. Cowper’s Churchw. Acc. St. Dunstan’s Canterb., p. xii. J candelstyke to stonde afore childwyfez.
1499. Will of Frere (Somerset Ho.). To the Ch. of S. Marg. Southwk ij cusshones of arras worke for childe wife to sitt & knele vppon.
1555. Bradford, in Strype, Eccl. Mem., III. (1721), App. xlv. 136. The Kinge … held the Childwyfes Backe, while she had brought forth the Chylde, and was her Mydwyfe.
1566. Painter, Pal. Pleas., I. 7. Let vs go … to visite the child-wife, and to gratulate the father.
1636. Churchw. Acc. Cundal (in N. & Q., Ser. III. XI. 138/2). A childwife pew … 26s. 8d. Note. The childwife pew we take to be the ‘some convenient place’ of the rubric where the woman was to kneel in church at the time of her thanksgiving after child-birth.
† 2. A midwife. Obs. rare.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), VII. 425. Bi þe counsaile of a childe wyf [obstetricis consilio].
3. A wife who is a child, a very young wife. (In this sense always with hyphen.)
1852. Miss Yonge, Cameos (1877), II. xix. 199. Mary of England, the child-wife of Montfort.
1849. Dickens, Dav. Copp., xliv. ‘Will you call me a name I want you to call me?’ inquired Dora:—‘Child-wife.’
