wife-beating

English

Adjective

wife-beating (comparative more wife-beating, superlative most wife-beating)

1. Prone to physically assaulting one's wife.
   • 2009, Frederick E. Greenspahn, Women and Judaism: New Insights and Scholarship, page 75:

     The Mishnah's mention of injuries inflicted on a woman by a man can refer to an assailant outside the family and to inadvertent assault, but the phrase surely includes a wife-beating husband, too.

   • 2010, David Parnell, Amy Hagberg, Facing the Dragon:

     The cycle came full circle with me when I became a wife-beating drug addict, too.

Derived terms

• wife-beating question

Noun

wife-beating (countable and uncountable, plural wife-beatings)

1. Alternative form of wifebeating
   • 1981, Del Martin, Battered Wives, page 31:

     However, certain restrictions did exist, and the general trend in the young states was toward declaring wife-beating illegal.

   • 2005, Female Genital Mutilation/cutting, page 24:

     As previously outlined, indicators related to perceptions of wife-beating aim to test women's attitudes towards gender roles and gender equality.

   • 2009, Frederick E. Greenspahn, Women and Judaism: New Insights and Scholarship, page 75:

     Violence Against Women Grossman states clearly that wife-beating occurred in the Middle Ages in all societal classes.