husband

American  

[huhz-buhnd] / ˈhʌz bənd /

noun

husbands plural

1. a married man, especially when considered in relation to his partner in marriage.

2. British. a manager.

3. Archaic. a prudent or frugal manager.

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verb (used with object)

husbands, present (3rd person singular) husbanded, past participle, past husbanding present participle

1. to manage, especially with prudent economy.

2. to use frugally; conserve.

   to husband one's resources.

   Synonyms:

   hoard, store, save, preserve

3. Archaic.

   1. to be or become a husband to; marry.

   2. to find a husband for.

   3. to till; cultivate.

husband British  

/ ˈhʌzbənd /

noun

1. a woman's partner in marriage

2. archaic

   1. a manager of an estate

   2. a frugal person

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verb

1. to manage or use (resources, finances, etc) thriftily

2. archaic

   1. (tr) to find a husband for

   2. (of a woman) to marry (a man)

3. obsolete (tr) to till (the soil)

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• husbander
  noun
• husbandless
  adjective
• unhusbanded
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• husbands
  plural

Participles

• husbanding
  present
• husbanded
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• husband
  simple
• husbands
  simple
• have husbanded
  perfect
• has husbanded
  perfect
• am husbanding
  progressive
• are husbanding
  progressive
• is husbanding
  progressive
• have been husbanding
  perfect progressive
• has been husbanding
  perfect progressive

Past

• husbanded
  simple
• had husbanded
  perfect
• was husbanding
  progressive
• were husbanding
  progressive
• had been husbanding
  perfect progressive

Future

• will husband
  simple
• will have husbanded
  perfect
• will be husbanding
  progressive
• will have been husbanding
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of husband

before 1000; Middle English husband ( e ), Old English hūsbonda master of the house < Old Norse hūsbōndi, equivalent to hūs house + bōndi ( bō-, variant of bū- dwell ( see boor) + -nd present participle suffix + -i inflectional ending)

Explanation

A husband is a married man. Your grandfather might joke that he and your grandmother have been husband and wife for so long because she has the patience of a saint and he is deaf as a post. The word husband comes from the Old Norse hūsbōndi, where hūs meant house and bōndi meant dweller. As a verb, husband means to conserve resources and use them frugally. Because of the flooding in the area, roads are cut off and everyone is being asked to husband their supplies. This conservation of resources sense of husband also occurs in the related noun husbandry.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

husband husbands husbanded husbanding

My mom’s husband was recently diagnosed with cancer.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 2026

She’s been sober for 20 years, she writes, remarried and now has a son with her second husband.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026

She said her husband and Gu were determined to make sure that cancer did not take her dancing away as it had done with "everything else".

From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026

By all accounts, they were a deeply devoted couple: Peter said he wrote with Lorraine’s voice in mind, while she included music by her husband in every recital.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026

I remember one time before my marriage the death of Mr. Brown the second husband of my sister Mrs. Fish, now Mrs. Underhill.

From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock

But over the years, 41 women directly followed their deceased husbands into the lower chamber.

From Slate ● Jul. 24, 2026

“I realized a lot of wives were wishing their husbands were there and they weren’t,” he said.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 23, 2026

Though strictly a fathers club, the group, Nieves said, has grown thanks to wives and partners sharing his social media posts with their husbands.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 19, 2026

"For everyone here, it's not easy. I see what my friends are going through. They're watching their husbands change."

From Barron's ● Jun. 15, 2026

They loosened their stays and sighed the hours away and cursed the heat and their husbands, too, for dragging them to Caldwell County to plant cotton and acres of pecan trees.

From "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" by Jacqueline Kelly

But he seemed diffident about them when we spoke and finally admitted that since the pandemic began all of his carefully husbanded nervousness has been consumed by life rather than work.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 6, 2020

After his parents divorced, Folkert’s mom did yard work and landscaping and cleaned houses to earn money — which she husbanded with care.

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 27, 2018

Tollett has not only husbanded the landscape; he has branded it.

From The New Yorker ● Apr. 10, 2017

She has carefully husbanded her resources over the decades, and she can still deliver a classy, effective performance.

From New York Times ● Jun. 6, 2014

Wang Lung allowed nothing to be bought and sold after the winter came except what he said, and he husbanded carefully all that they had.

From "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck

The glimpse reminded voters that Davis, who was husbanding his resources for a late advertising push, was still in the race.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 25, 2026

China did this by building up domestic industries, developing alternative sources for scarce inputs and carefully husbanding its strengths in areas where they saw a chance to seize control.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 1, 2025

Allies allow you to project power while husbanding your own resources.

From Salon ● Mar. 5, 2025

"The greater risk environment for financials leads to husbanding of capital and risk-taking, less and more conservative investing and lending, and inevitably, lower growth," said Blankfein, who also served as Goldman's chairman, told Reuters.

From Reuters ● Mar. 20, 2023

Aragorn let them drift with the stream as they wished, husbanding their strength against weariness to come.

From "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien

Related Words

• companion
• partner
• spouse