husband

[ huhz-buhnd ]

noun

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.

verb (used with object)

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

/ ˈhʌzbənd /

noun

1. a woman's partner in marriage
2. archaic.
   1. a manager of an estate
   2. a frugal person

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)

Derived Forms

• ˈhusbander, noun
• ˈhusbandless, adjective

Other Words From

• husband·er noun
• husband·less adjective
• un·husband·ed adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of husband¹

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 ( boor ) + -nd present participle suffix + -i inflectional ending)

Word History and Origins

Origin of husband¹

Old English hūsbonda, from Old Norse hūsbōndi, from hūs house + bōndi one who has a household, from bōa to dwell

Example Sentences

Former WNBA player Maya Moore and her husband Jonathan Irons have that kind of story.

From Essence.com

My husband and I are so in love with her and she’s so in love with us and we get to keep her every weekend.

From Essence.com

Saajan is mistakenly delivered a hot lunch intended for the ungrateful husband of an unhappy housewife, a man who doesn’t appreciate the care that’s gone into her cooking.

From Outside Online

Luckily, I had my husband to remind me that I had taken quite the fixed mindset and I needed to work for it.

From Fortune

She went home told her husband, “Okay, we can’t move to Denver.”

From Fortune

Toomey lives here with her husband, Mark, a managing director at Goldman Sachs, and their two daughters.

From The Daily Beast

Smith attended both funerals as a cop and as the husband of Police Officer Moira Smith, who died on 9/11.

From The Daily Beast

As the protagonist gets herself off in front of her impotent husband, she moans “Oh, Gronky.”

From The Daily Beast

Early on, the sexual protagonist complains that her Molson-drinking husband is pretty much an incompetent Neanderthal.

From The Daily Beast

“Call me when the plane leaves the ground,” she said, in a tone that implied she knew her husband well.

From The Daily Beast

M'Bongo, the great chief of this neighbourhood, paid a ceremonial visit to my husband.

From Project Gutenberg

My husband detests them; on the contrary, I like those carriages, for they tell me of happy—I mean to say, of former times.

From Project Gutenberg

A friend and companion meeting together in season, but above them both is a wife with her husband.

From Project Gutenberg

Not one woman in a thousand he knew would place a father before a husband; but his wife was different.

From Project Gutenberg

In the spring of 1877 Mrs. Kipling came to England to see her children, and was followed the next year by her husband.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• companion
• partner
• spouse