English

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Etymology

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From Middle English housbondly, equivalent to husband +‎ -ly.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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husbandly (comparative more husbandly, superlative most husbandly)

  1. Characteristic of a husband; proper and fitting for a husband; marital.
    • 1956, Anthony Burgess, Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 177:
      One thing she still would not allow was that horrible erotic act which was a commonplace of American and European films, but she took complaisantly enough now to his other husbandly advances.
    • 2008 May 26, Jon Pareles, “New CDs”, in New York Times[1]:
      He strives for husbandly allure in slow-motion ballads: “Love You Gently” and the role-reversing “Trading Places,” in which he calls for her to be the aggressive one and offers to make breakfast the next morning.
    • 2012, Faramerz Dabhoiwala, The Origins of Sex, Penguin, published 2013, page 211:
      As a result, analogies between royal, paternal, and husbandly authority were frequently drawn.
  2. (obsolete) Pertaining to a husbandman or husbandry.
  3. (obsolete) Frugal; economical.
    • 1707, Ofspring Blackall, The blessedness of the poor in spirit:
      Even he that has the most of all is nevertheless oblig'd to be Frugal and Husbandly, and not to lavish or squander away what he has [...].

Translations

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