cuckold
Americannoun
verb (used with object)
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
has cuckoldedperfect 3rd person singular
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have cuckoldedperfect
-
has been cuckoldingperfect progressive 3rd person singular
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am cuckoldingprogressive 1st person singular
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cuckoldingparticiple
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have been cuckoldingperfect progressive
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cuckoldssingular 3rd person
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are cuckoldingprogressive
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is cuckoldingprogressive 3rd person singular
Past
-
had cuckoldedperfect
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had been cuckoldingperfect progressive
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was cuckoldingprogressive singular
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cuckoldedsimple
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were cuckoldingprogressive plural
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cuckoldedparticiple
Future
Etymology
Origin of cuckold
1200–50; Middle English cukeweld, later cok ( k ) ewold, cukwold < Anglo-French *cucuald (compare Middle French cucuault ), equivalent to Old French cocu cuckoo + -ald, -alt pejorative suffix ( see ribald); apparently originally applied to an adulterer, in allusion to the cuckoo's habit of laying its eggs in other birds' nests
Explanation
A cuckold is a man who has been betrayed by his wife. If your wife cuckolds you, she is cheating on you with a different man. This is an old-fashioned word you can find in many Shakespeare plays, though cuckolding is certainly older than Shakespeare and will always exist as long as there are marriages. A man can't cuckold a woman: only a wife can cuckold her husband. By sleeping with another man, she makes her husband a cuckold.
Vocabulary lists containing cuckold
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
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Twelfth Night
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Much Ado About Nothing
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
