womenfolk
(ˈwɪmɪnfəʊk)
Also dial. and U.S. -folks.
[f. women, pl. of woman n. + folk.]
a. Women collectively, womankind. Now dial. b. The women of a household, a party, or the like: dial. the female servants.
| 1833 T. Hook Parson's Dau. i. vii, You have been snubbed—the women-folk, as I call them, have driven you away. 1849 E. E. Napier Excurs. S. Afr. II. 389 Making your appearance in such a fashion, and that too, when you know there are women-folk in the house. 1851 J. J. Hooper Widow Rugby's Husband 50 Such wimmen folks. 1877 Black Green Past. i, There was a stir among our women-folk. 1879 Burroughs Locusts & Wild Honey 131 We could gain no information from the ‘women-folks’..nor from the men who had just come in. 1896 Rideal (title) Charles Dickens's Heroines and Women-Folk. 1911 Times 2 Aug. 3/2 Foreign residents have sent their women-folk by train to Mexico City. |