wittol

American  

[wit-l] / ˈwɪt l /

noun

Archaic.

1. a man who knows of and tolerates his wife's infidelity.

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wittol British  

/ ˈwɪtəl /

noun

1. obsolete a man who tolerates his wife's unfaithfulness

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Etymology

Origin of wittol

1400–50; late Middle English wetewold, equivalent to wete wit ² + ( coke ) wold cuckold

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

wittol

Russian Ambassador to England after the Napoleonic wars, Lieven was an upright, punctilious, short-sighted wittol whose portrait makes him look like an aristocratic Andy Gump.

From Time Magazine Archive

Again, there is no historical proof that Captain O'Shea was the wittol and Gladstonian stool pigeon Playwright Schauffler shows.

From Time Magazine Archive

And to think," he said, "that all this time I have thought of him as my pet diversion, my wittol, my moon-calf!

From "Persons Unknown" by Virginia Tracy

"By the head of the Prophet," exclaimed the wittol, "had I known that my cow was such a prodigy of excellence, you should not have caught me in the market with her for sale."

From The Book of Noodles Stories of Simpletons; or, Fools and Their Follies by William Alexander Clouston

Say, once and always, Luca was a wittol, I am his cutthroat, you are— Ottima.Here's the wine; I brought it when we left the house above,55 And glasses too—wine of both sorts.

From Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning by Myra Reynolds