housewife

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A married woman who manages the household as her main occupation and whose spouse usually earns the family income.
• noun A small container for needles, thread, and other sewing equipment.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To manage like a housewife, or with skill and thrift; economize.
• noun The mistress of a family; the wife of a householder; a female manager of domestic affairs.
• noun A case for pins, needles, thread, scissors, etc.: same as hussy.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• transitive verb To manage with skill and economy, as a housewife or other female manager; to economize.
• noun The wife of a householder; the mistress of a family; the female head of a household.
• noun A little case or bag for materials used in sewing, and for other articles of female work; -- called also hussy.
• noun rare A hussy.
• noun a ditty-bag.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun The wife of a householder; the mistress of a family; the female head of a household.
• noun A little case or bag for materials used in sewing, and for other articles of female work; – called also hussy.
• verb Alternative form of housewive.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a wife who manages a household while her husband earns the family income