alewife

1 of 2

noun (1)

ale·​wife ˈāl-ˌwīf 

: a woman who keeps an alehouse

alewife

2 of 2

noun (2)

plural alewives ˈāl-ˌwīvz 

: a food fish (Alosa pseudoharengus) of the herring family that is very abundant along the Atlantic coast

also : any of several related fishes (such as the menhaden)

Examples of alewife in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

The Council got back to work and a bill amending an act regulating the shad and alewife fisheries was passed that day, Philips wrote. —Martin Finucane, BostonGlobe.com, 23 Aug. 2023

The small fish such as alewife and rainbow smelt are also subject to predation by predator fish such as chinook salmon and lake trout. —Paul A. Smith, Journal Sentinel, 8 Apr. 2023

Hutchinson and his colleagues were able to watch this kind of change in Connecticut lakes thanks to the comings and goings of a fish called the alewife. —Carl Zimmer, Discover Magazine, 31 Mar. 2011

The alewife, another invasive species, then overpopulated the lake and spoiled beaches in massive die-offs through the 1950s and 60s. —Paul A. Smith, Journal Sentinel, 11 Sep. 2022

The Lake Michigan salmon and trout fishery is dominated by non-native species introduced in the 1960s to help reduce the number of alewife, a small invasive fish that died by the millions and fouled beaches. —Paul A. Smith, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 28 Nov. 2021

The diversity in steelhead food choices puts less strain on the lake's alewife population, which is the preferred forage for chinook salmon, the most stocked and fastest growing species in the lake, and makes steelhead more likely to survive potential downturns in prey fish numbers. —Paul A. Smith, Journal Sentinel, 2 Jan. 2023

That restoration effort sputtered for decades — until the alewife population started to fade. —jsonline.com, 2 Sep. 2021

In the 1960s, biologists audaciously began stocking the Great Lakes with Pacific salmon to destroy an Atlantic alewife infestation — and build a multibillion-dollar recreational fishery. —jsonline.com, 2 Sep. 2021

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Word History

Etymology

Noun (2)

perhaps alteration of obsolete allowes, a kind of shad, from French alose shad, from Old French, from Late Latin alausa

First Known Use

Noun (1)

15th century, in the meaning defined above

Noun (2)

1633, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

alewife

noun

ale·​wife

ˈā(ə)l-ˌwīf

: a food fish that is related to the herrings and is common along the Atlantic coast of the U.S.