husband

English

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From Middle English husbonde, from Old English hūsbonda, hūsbunda (“male head of a household, householder, master of a house”), probably from Old Norse húsbóndi (“master of house”), from hús (“house”) + bóndi (“dweller, householder”), equivalent to house +‎ bond (“serf, slave”). Cognate with Icelandic húsbóndi (“head of household”), Faroese húsbóndi (“husband”), Norwegian husbond (“head of household, husband”), Swedish husbonde (“master”), Danish husbonde (“husband”).

Noun

husband (plural husbands)

  1. (obsolete) The master of a house; the head of a family; a householder.
  2. (obsolete) A tiller of the ground; a husbandman.
    • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.3:
      a withered tree, through husbands toyle, / Is often seene full freshly to have florisht […]
  3. (archaic) A prudent or frugal manager.
  4. A man in a marriage or marital relationship, especially in relation to his spouse.
  5. (UK) A manager of property; one who has the care of another's belongings, owndom, or interests; a steward; an economist.
  6. Large cushion with arms meant to support a person in the sitting position.
    While reading her book, Sally leaned back against her husband, wishing it were the human kind.
  7. (UK dialectal) A polled tree; a pollard.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Hypernyms
Derived terms
Derived terms
Translations
male partner in marriage
cushion

Etymology 2

From Middle English husbonden, from husbonde (“master of a house”). See above.

Verb

husband (third-person singular simple present husbands, present participle husbanding, simple past and past participle husbanded)

  1. (transitive) To manage or administer carefully and frugally; use to the best advantage; economise.
    For my means, I'll husband them so well, / They shall go far. — Shakespeare.
  2. (transitive) To conserve.
    • 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
      ...I found pens, ink, and paper, and I husbanded them to the utmost; and I shall show that while my ink lasted, I kept things very exact, but after that was gone I could not, for I could not make any ink by any means that I could devise.
  3. (transitive, obsolete) To till; cultivate; farm; nurture.
    Land so trim and rarely husbanded. — Evelyn.
  4. (transitive) To provide with a husband.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)
  5. (transitive) To engage or act as a husband to; assume the care of or responsibility for; accept as one's own.
Derived terms
Translations
to conserve

Statistics

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Swedish

Etymology

hus (“house”) +‎ band (“band”)

Noun

husband n

  1. a group of musicians who regularly play live in a TV show

Declension

Declension of husband
singular plural
Neuter indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative husband husbandet husband husbanden
genitive husbands husbandets husbands husbandens
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Last modified on 19 May 2013, at 17:05