Emily Dickinson Lexicon

ALE'-WIFE, or A'LOOF, n. [This word is properly aloof, the Indian name of a fish. See Winthrop on the culture of maiz in America, Phil. Trans. No. 142, p. 1065, and Baddam's Memoirs, vol. 2, 131.]

An American fish, belonging to the genus Clupea, and called Clupea serrata. It resembles the herring. The established pronunciation is Alewife, Plur. Alewives.