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

Sot is an old word that signifies a dunce, dullard, jolthead, gull, wittol, or noddy, one without guts in his brains, whose cockloft is unfurnished, and, in short, a fool.

From Gargantua and Pantagruel, Illustrated, Book 5 by Peter Anthony Motteux

"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

What do I here, list'ning like to an abject, Or heartless wittol, that must hear no good, If he hear aught?

From The Works of Charles Lamb in Four Volumes, Volume 4 by Charles Lamb