Husband
name, noun, verb ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 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."
- 2 a married man; a woman's partner in marriage wordnet
- 3 A manager of property; one who has the care of another's belongings, owndom, or interests; a steward; an economist. UK
- 4 A prudent or frugal manager. archaic
"God knows how little time is left me, and may I be a good husband, to improve the short remnant thereof."
- 5 The master of a house; the head of a family; a householder. dated
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- 6 A tiller of the ground; a husbandman.
"[…] a withered tree, through husbands toyle, Is often seene full freshly to have florisht […]"
- 7 The male of a pair of animals.
"Husband of the Herd"
- 8 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."
- 9 A polled tree; a pollard. UK, dialectal
- 1 To manage or administer carefully and frugally; use to the best advantage; economise. transitive
"And for my meanes, I'll husband them so well, They shall go farre with little."
- 2 use cautiously and frugally wordnet
- 3 To conserve. transitive
"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."
- 4 To till; cultivate; farm; nurture. obsolete, transitive
"Land so trim and rarely husbanded."
- 5 To provide with a husband. archaic, transitive
"Thinke you, I am no ſtronger then my Sex Being ſo Father'd, and ſo Husbanded?"
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- 6 To engage or act as a husband to; assume the care of or responsibility for; accept as one's own. transitive
- 1 A surname. countable, uncountable
- 2 An unincorporated community in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, United States, named after Harmon Husband. countable, uncountable
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"The man in the corner addressed himself to the husband."
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.
Related phrases
More for "husband"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.