husband
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈhʌz.bənd/
Forms: form: husbands
Etymology: From Middle English husbonde, from Old English hūsbonda (“head of household”), from Old Norse húsbóndi, from hús + bóndi, corresponding to Proto-Germanic *hūsą (“house”) and *būandz (“dwelling, residing”, present participle). Compare English house and bond³.
Senses: examples: text: You should start dating so you can find a suitable husband.
text: The husband and wife are one person in law.
ref: 1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC:
text: A great bargain also had been[…]the arm-chair in which Bunting now sat forward, staring into the dull, small fire. In fact, that arm-chair had been an extravagance of Mrs. Bunting. She had wanted her husband to be comfortable after the day's work was done, and she had paid thirty-seven shillings for the chair.
ref: 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], →OCLC, page 0016:
text: But Sophia's mother was not the woman to brook defiance. After a few moments' vain remonstrance her husband complied. His manner and appearance were suggestive of a satiated sea-lion.
ref: 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 6, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:
synonyms: word: hubby
glosses: A man in a marriage or marital relationship, especially in relation to his spouse.
glosses: A manager of property; one who has the care of another's belongings, owndom, or interests; a steward; an economist.
examples: text: God knows how little time is left me, and may I be a good husband, to improve the short remnant thereof.
ref: 1645, Thomas Fuller, Good Thoughts in Bad Times, Occasional Meditations: V:
text: [S]o I went and fetch’d a good Dram of Rum, and gave him; for I had been ſo good a Husband of my Rum, that I had a great deal left: When he had drank it, I made him take the two Fowling-Pieces, which we always carry’d, and load them with large Swan-Shot, as big as ſmall Piſtol Bullets; then I took four Muſkets, and loaded them with two Slugs, and five ſmall Bullets each; and my two Piſtols I loaded with a Brace of Bullets each; I hung my great Sword as uſual, naked by my Side, and gave Friday his Hatchet.
ref: 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, pages 273–274:
glosses: A prudent or frugal manager.
glosses: The master of a house; the head of a family; a householder.
examples: text: […] a withered tree, through husbands toyle,
 Is often seene full freshly to have florisht […]
ref: 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC:
text: The painfull husband plowing up his ground, Shall finde all fret and rust both pikes and shields
ref: 1627, G[eorge] H[akewill], An Apologie of the Power and Prouidence of God in the Gouernment of the World. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Iohn Lichfield and William Turner, […], →OCLC:
text: He is the neatest husband for curious ordering his domestick and field accommodations.
ref: 1681 September 9 (Gregorian calendar), John Evelyn, “[Diary entry for 30 August 1681]”, in William Bray, editor, Memoirs, Illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Evelyn, […], 2nd edition, volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […]; and sold by John and Arthur Arch, […], published 1819, →OCLC:
glosses: A tiller of the ground; a husbandman.
examples: text: Husband of the Herd
ref: 1697, Virgil, “The Third Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
glosses: The male of a pair of animals.
examples: text: While reading her book, Sally leaned back against her husband, wishing it were the human kind.
glosses: A large cushion with arms meant to support a person in the sitting position; a husband pillow.
glosses: A polled tree; a pollard.
Synonyms: word: baron
topics: law
word: his lordship
word: hubby
word: husband
word: lord and master
word: old man
Hypernyms: word: wedder
english: may or may not be married
translation: may or may not be married
word: partner
english: may also apply to wife
translation: may also apply to wife
word: spouse
word: lover
word: significant other
Hyponyms: word: benedict
word: betty
word: cot-betty
word: cot-quean
word: henhussy
word: househusband
word: husman
Coordinate terms: wife
Derived terms: brother-husband
co-husband
cyberhusband
ex-husband
gingerbread husband
gusband
house husband
hubby
husbandage
husband and wife
husbander
husbandhood
husband-in-law
husbandish
husbandless
husbandlike
husbandly
husbandman
husbando
husbandry
husbandship
husband stitch
husbandwoman
husbian
husman
ice husband
Ineffable Husbands
jealous husbands problem
merhusband
midhusband
Murder Husbands
retired husband syndrome
ship's husband
trophy husband
wasband
welcome-home-husband-though-never-so-drunk
work husband
Younghusband
Related terms: word: autem cove
word: boyfriend
word: fiancée
word: widower