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Webster 1913 Edition

Husband

Hus′band

,
Noun.
[OE.
hosebonde
,
husbonde
, a husband, the master of the house or family, AS.
h[GREEK]sbonda
master of the house;
h[GREEK]s
house +
bunda
,
bonda
, householder, husband; prob. fr. Icel.
h[GREEK]sbōndi
house master, husband;
h[GREEK]s
house +
b[GREEK]andi
dwelling, inhabiting, p. pr. of
b[GREEK]a
to dwell; akin to AS.
b[GREEK]an
, Goth.
bauan
. See
House Be
, and cf.
Bond
a slave,
Boor
.]
1.
The male head of a household; one who orders the economy of a family.
[Obs.]
2.
A cultivator; a tiller; a husbandman.
[Obs.]
Shak.
The painful
husband
, plowing up his ground.
Hakewill.
He is the neatest
husband
for curious ordering his domestic and field accommodations.
Evelyn.
3.
One who manages or directs with prudence and economy; a frugal person; an economist.
[R.]
God knows how little time is left me, and may I be a good
husband
, to improve the short remnant left me.
Fuller.
4.
A married man; a man who has a wife; – the correlative to wife.
The
husband
and wife are one person in law.
Blackstone.
5.
The male of a pair of animals.
[R.]
Dryden.
A ship’s husband
(Naut.)
,
an agent representing the owners of a ship, who manages its expenses and receipts.

Hus′band

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Husbanded
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Husbanding
.]
1.
To direct and manage with frugality; to use or employ to good purpose and the best advantage; to spend, apply, or use, with economy.
For my means, I'll
husband
them so well,
They shall go far.
Shakespeare
2.
To cultivate, as land; to till.
[R.]
Land so trim and rarely
husbanded
.
Evelyn.
3.
To furnish with a husband.
[R.]
Shak.

Webster 1828 Edition

Husband

HUS'BAND

,
Noun.
s as z.
1.
A man contracted or joined to a woman by marriage. A man to whom a woman is betrothed, as well as one actually united by marriage, is called a husband. Lev.19. Deut.22.
2.
In seaman's language, the owner of a ship who manages its concerns in person.
3.
The male of animals of a lower order.
4.
An economist; a good manager; a man who knows and practices the methods of frugality and profit. In this sense, the word is modified by an epithet; as a good husband; a bad husband. [But in America, this application of the word is little or not at all used.]
5.
A farmer; a cultivator; a tiller of the ground. [In this sense, it is not used in America. We always use husbandman.]

HUS'BAND

,
Verb.
T.
To direct and manage with frugality in expending any thing; to use or employ in the manner best suited to produce the greatest effect; to use with economy. We say, a man husbands his estate,his means or his time.
He is conscious how ill he has husbanded the great deposit of his Creator.
1.
To till; to cultivate with good management.
2.
To supply with a husband. [Little used.]

Definition 2024

husband

husband

English

Noun

husband ‎(plural husbands)

  1. (obsolete) The master of a house; the head of a family; a householder.
  2. (obsolete) A tiller of the ground; a husbandman.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.3:
      a withered tree, through husbands toyle, / Is often seene full freshly to have florisht […]
    • (Can we date this quote?) George Hakewill (1578-1649)
      the painful husband, ploughing up his ground
    • (Can we date this quote?) John Evelyn (1620-1706)
      He is the neatest husband for curious ordering his domestick and field accommodations.
  3. (archaic) A prudent or frugal manager.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Thomas Fuller (1606-1661)
      God knows how little time is left me, and may I be a good husband, to improve the short remnant left me.
  4. A man in a marriage or marital relationship, especially in relation to his spouse.
    You should start dating so you can find a suitable husband.‎
    • (Can we date this quote?) William Blackstone (1723-1780)
      The husband and wife are one person in law.
    • 1915, Mrs. Belloc Lowndes, The Lodger, chapter I:
      A great bargain also had been […] the arm-chair in which Bunting now sat forward, staring into the dull, small fire. In fact, that arm-chair had been an extravagance of Mrs. Bunting. She had wanted her husband to be comfortable after the day's work was done, and she had paid thirty-seven shillings for the chair.
    • 1922, Ben Travers, chapter 6, in A Cuckoo in the Nest:
      But Sophia's mother was not the woman to brook defiance. After a few moments' vain remonstrance her husband complied. His manner and appearance were suggestive of a satiated sea-lion.
  5. The male of a pair of animals.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Dryden to this entry?)
  6. (Britain) A manager of property; one who has the care of another's belongings, owndom, or interests; a steward; an economist.
  7. A large cushion with arms meant to support a person in the sitting position.
    While reading her book, Sally leaned back against her husband, wishing it were the human kind.‎
  8. (Britain dialectal) A polled tree; a pollard.

Synonyms

  • See also Wikisaurus:husband

Antonyms

Hypernyms

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

husband ‎(third-person singular simple present husbands, present participle husbanding, simple past and past participle husbanded)

  1. (transitive) To manage or administer carefully and frugally; use to the best advantage; economise.
    For my means, I'll husband them so well, / They shall go far. — Shakespeare.
  2. (transitive) To conserve.
    • 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
      ...I found pens, ink, and paper, and I husbanded them to the utmost; and I shall show that while my ink lasted, I kept things very exact, but after that was gone I could not, for I could not make any ink by any means that I could devise.
  3. (transitive, obsolete) To till; cultivate; farm; nurture.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Evelyn
      Land so trim and rarely husbanded.
  4. (transitive) To provide with a husband.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)
  5. (transitive) To engage or act as a husband to; assume the care of or responsibility for; accept as one's own.

Derived terms

Translations

Statistics

Most common English words before 1923: certainly · big · road · #550: husband · blockquote · effect · wanted

Swedish

Etymology

hus ‎(“house”) +‎ band ‎(“band”)

Noun

husband n

  1. a group of musicians who regularly play live in a TV show

Declension

Inflection of husband 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative husband husbandet husband husbanden
Genitive husbands husbandets husbands husbandens

Etymology

From Middle English husbonde, from Old English hūsbonda, hūsbunda ‎(“male head of a household, householder, master of a house”), probably from Old Norse húsbóndi ‎(“master of house”), from hús ‎(“house”) + bóndi ‎(“dweller, householder”), equivalent to house +‎ bond ‎(“serf, slave", originally, "dweller”).

Bond in turn represents a formation derived from the present participle of WestScand. búa, EastScand. bôa = to build, plow; cf. German bauen, der Bauende. Cognate with Icelandic húsbóndi ‎(“head of household”), Faroese húsbóndi ‎(“husband”), Norwegian husbond ‎(“head of household, husband”), Swedish husbonde ‎(“master”), Danish husbonde ‎(“husband”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈhʌzbənd/

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