husband
Americannoun
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husbands
plural
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a married man, especially when considered in relation to his partner in marriage.
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British. a manager.
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Archaic. a prudent or frugal manager.
verb (used with object)
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husbands,
present (3rd person singular)
-
husbanded,
past participle, past
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husbanding
present participle
noun
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a woman's partner in marriage
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archaic
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a manager of an estate
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a frugal person
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verb
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to manage or use (resources, finances, etc) thriftily
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archaic
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(tr) to find a husband for
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(of a woman) to marry (a man)
-
-
obsolete (tr) to till (the soil)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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husbandsimple
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husbandssimple
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have husbandedperfect
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has husbandedperfect
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am husbandingprogressive
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are husbandingprogressive
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is husbandingprogressive
-
have been husbandingperfect progressive
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has been husbandingperfect progressive
Past
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husbandedsimple
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had husbandedperfect
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was husbandingprogressive
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were husbandingprogressive
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had been husbandingperfect progressive
Future
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.
Vocabulary lists containing husband
The Taming of the Shrew
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Units 2–3
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"The Taming of the Shrew" by William Shakespeare, Induction
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
He was remembered for living a “life of service,” and his family described him as a “devoted husband, father, family member and friend who made those around him feel valued, supported and cared for.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2026
On a dreary autumn day in 2022, Sarah Perry and her husband, Robert, were waiting for David, Robert’s father, at a department store in Norwich, England.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
Martinson's wife wrote online that her husband was "incredibly driven, hardworking and ambitious".
From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2026
‘I’d rather be on a beach in Bali’: My husband resents my $8 million net worth.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 2, 2026
With one hand on Jonathan’s shoulder and the other around her husband, Mrs. Palmer managed to hop out of the lake on one foot.
From "Earthquake Terror" by Peg Kehret
Still, there’s clearly a lot of resentment among some Christian conservative women about husbands who don’t do chores.
From Salon ● Sep. 28, 2026
"Because of the people who've gone to fight and the families left behind with sons, husbands, children and grandchildren there. But these elections can't influence what will happen."
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
Parents raised sons to be husbands and fathers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
Photos of sons, daughters, uncles and husbands pepper Chinese social media, shared by people hoping for news about relatives missing since deadly floods on the border with Nepal last week.
From Barron's ● Sep. 3, 2026
The husbands would just as soon have not gone to their in-laws, but they felt annoyed at the father's strutting.
From "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez
As it is, I like to think of Dr. Lecter in his Maple Leafs warm-up jersey, losing his carefully husbanded gourmet meal to the little boy.
From New York Times ● Oct. 21, 2021
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
From there to the line, she husbanded her lead like someone who had been doing it all her life.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 7, 2018
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
Even the wilderness is carefully husbanded there, and though that forest had been logged for centuries there were no waste places in it, no desolations of stumps, no eroded slopes.
From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin
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
She had been husbanding her own misery, shaping it, making of it an art and a Way.
From "Song of Solomon" by Toni Morrison
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.
