Word definition: husband

Etimology


From Middle English husbonde, housbonde, from Old English hūsbonda, hūsbunda (“male head of a household, householder, master of a house”), from Old Norse húsbóndi (“master of house”), from hús (“house”) + bóndi (“dweller, householder”), equivalent to house +‎ bond (“serf, slave", originally, "dweller”). Bond in turn represents a formation derived from the present participle of West Scandinavian búa, East Scandinavian bôa = to build, plow; compare German bauen, der Bauende. Cognate with Icelandic húsbóndi (“head of household”), Faroese húsbóndi (“husband”), Norwegian husbond (“head of household, husband”), Swedish husbonde (“master”), Danish husbond (“husband”) (< Old Danish husbonde).

noun


husband (plural husbands)

The master of a house; the head of a family; a householder.

A tiller of the ground; a husbandman.

A prudent or frugal manager.

A man in a marriage or marital relationship, especially in relation to his spouse.

The male of a pair of animals.

(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.

(UK dialectal) A polled tree; a pollard.

Examples


[…] a withered tree, through husbands toyle, Is often seene full freshly to have florisht […]

The painfull husband plowing up his ground, Shall finde all fret and rust both pikes and shields

He is the neatest husband for curious ordering his domestick and field accommodations.

God knows how little time is left me, and may I be a good husband, to improve the short remnant thereof.

So I went and fetched 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 carried, 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.

You should start dating so you can find a suitable husband.

The husband and wife are one person in law.

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.

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.

Husband of the Herd

While reading her book, Sally leaned back against her husband, wishing it were the human kind.

Related words


synonyms

See also Thesaurus:husband

hypernyms

wedder

partner (may or may not be married)

spouse (may also apply to wife)

coordinate terms

wife

verb


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.

(transitive) To conserve.

(transitive, obsolete) To till; cultivate; farm; nurture.

(transitive) To provide with a husband.

(transitive) To engage or act as a husband to; assume the care of or responsibility for; accept as one's own.

Examples


And for my meanes, I'll husband them so well,They shall go farre with little.

...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.

Land so trim and rarely husbanded.

Thinke you, I am no ſtronger then my Sex Being ſo Father'd, and ſo Husbanded?

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