Husband-in-law
noun, slang ·Uncommon ·College level
Definitions
- 1 A husband in law only, such as one who has abandoned his wife
- 2 A husband who provides legally required support, but not love or affection
- 3 Another husband of one's wife. Typically used in cases of divorce and subsequent remarriage. colloquial
"the collection of people who would gather in either of the two houses for Christmas and Thanksgiving, and sometimes again in summer. This collection involved former mothers-in-law, former husbands, ex-wives of former husbands, and doddering uncles from distant marriages, as well as, of course, the various and sundry children and dogs (dogs-in-law as one family member calls them) of the now recombined families. In the process, I believe, we were responsible for the creation of a new American family relative—the wife-in-law, or the husband-in-law."
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"the collection of people who would gather in either of the two houses for Christmas and Thanksgiving, and sometimes again in summer. This collection involved former mothers-in-law, former husbands, ex-wives of former husbands, and doddering uncles from distant marriages, as well as, of course, the various and sundry children and dogs (dogs-in-law as one family member calls them) of the now recombined families. In the process, I believe, we were responsible for the creation of a new American family relative—the wife-in-law, or the husband-in-law."
Etymology
From husband + -in-law.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.