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Pronunciation varies by accent · noun
A woman who (among others) has the potential to become one's wife, or who is fulfilling the role of one's wife in addition to one's actual wife; a concubine.
For one who has no husband, as well as for one who acts as a side-wife for a person, who has formed a household, or who lives elsewhere and is not enumerated together [with a husband or children on a population register], […]
If, however, his wife gave him a handmaiden and he had children by her, he was then barred from taking a side-wife (as a concubine was called).
She was also a 'sidewife'. Nobody talks about it because she is a rich entrepreneur.
A gilly (or sheevin) is a side-wife taken by a man who already has a legal wife.
Use side-wife when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.
Side-wife means A woman who (among others) has the potential to become one's wife, or who is fulfilling the role of one's wife in addition to one's actual wife; a concubine.
The closest synonym depends on the sentence and intended sense.
The opposite depends on the specific sense.
For one who has no husband, as well as for one who acts as a side-wife for a person, who has formed a household, or who lives elsewhere and is not enumerated together [with a husband or children on a population register], […]
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