EnglishEdit
PronunciationEdit
EtymologyEdit
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”).
Rather not bond = serf, but present participle of WestScand. búa, EastScand. bôa = to build, to plow; cf. German bauen, der Bauende. Cognate with Icelandic húsbóndi (“head of household”), Faroese húsbóndi (“husband”), Norwegian husbond (“head of household, husband”), Swedish husbonde (“master”), Danish husbonde (“husband”).
NounEdit
husband (plural husbands)
- (obsolete) The master of a house; the head of a family; a householder.
- (obsolete) A tiller of the ground; a husbandman.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.3:
- a withered tree, through husbands toyle, / Is often seene full freshly to have florisht […]
- (Can we date this quote?) George Hakewill (1578-1649)
- the painful husband, ploughing up his ground
- (Can we date this quote?) John Evelyn (1620-1706)
- He is the neatest husband for curious ordering his domestick and field accommodations.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.3:
- (archaic) A prudent or frugal manager.
- (Can we date this quote?) Thomas Fuller (1606-1661)
- God knows how little time is left me, and may I be a good husband, to improve the short remnant left me.
- (Can we date this quote?) Thomas Fuller (1606-1661)
- A man in a marriage or marital relationship, especially in relation to his spouse.
- You should start dating so you can find a suitable husband.
- (Can we date this quote?) William Blackstone (1723-1780)
- The husband and wife are one person in law.
- 1915, Mrs. Belloc Lowndes, The Lodger, chapter I:
- 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.
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1922, Ben Travers, chapter 6, A Cuckoo in the Nest:
- 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.
- The male of a pair of animals.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Dryden to this entry?)
- (UK) A manager of property; one who has the care of another's belongings, owndom, or interests; a steward; an economist.
- A 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.
- (UK dialectal) A polled tree; a pollard.
SynonymsEdit
- See also Wikisaurus:husband
AntonymsEdit
HypernymsEdit
Derived termsEdit
Derived terms
TranslationsEdit
male partner in marriage
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cushion
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VerbEdit
husband (third-person singular simple present husbands, present participle husbanding, simple past and past participle husbanded)
- (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.
- (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.
- 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
- (transitive, obsolete) To till; cultivate; farm; nurture.
- (transitive) To provide with a husband.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)
- (transitive) To engage or act as a husband to; assume the care of or responsibility for; accept as one's own.
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
to conserve
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StatisticsEdit
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Most common English words before 1923: certainly · big · road · #550: husband · blockquote · effect · wanted