Wifebeater
noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 One who (usually as a repeated practice) beats his wife, or a husband prone to violence. countable, uncountable
"Depp, 57, had sued the Sun’s publisher, News Group Newspapers (NGN), and its executive editor, Dan Wootton, over an article published in the Sun that originally carried the headline “Gone Potty: How can JK Rowling be ‘genuinely happy’ casting wife beater Johnny Depp in the new Fantastic Beasts film?”"
- 2 A type of sleeveless shirt, often but not exclusively worn as an undershirt. US, colloquial, countable, derogatory, uncountable
"[A]s I walked down the bustling street toward campus with my friends, he came out of nowhere and gave me a pick-up line only a wifebeater guy could muster."
- 3 Stella Artois, a brand of lager beer. UK, colloquial, uncountable
"And then we were walking back alleys, trudging through the drifts of chip papers, the bottles and empty cans of wifebeater[…]"
Example
More examples"Depp, 57, had sued the Sun’s publisher, News Group Newspapers (NGN), and its executive editor, Dan Wootton, over an article published in the Sun that originally carried the headline “Gone Potty: How can JK Rowling be ‘genuinely happy’ casting wife beater Johnny Depp in the new Fantastic Beasts film?”"
Etymology
From wife + beater. The sleeveless shirt acquired the nickname by association with men who commit domestic violence. The lager, being relatively strong, was thought to lead to drunken disputes.
Related phrases
More for "wifebeater"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.