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Webster 1913 Edition
Wittol
Wit′tol
,Noun.
[Said to be for
white tail
, and so called in allusion to its white tail; but cf. witwal
.] 1.
(Zool.)
The wheatear.
[Prov. Eng.]
2.
A man who knows his wife’s infidelity and submits to it; a tame cuckold; – so called because the cuckoo lays its eggs in the wittol's nest.
[Obs.]
Shak.
Webster 1828 Edition
Wittol
WITTOL
,Noun.
Definition 2024
wittol
wittol
English
Noun
wittol (plural wittols)
- (archaic) A man who knows, condones and even encourages his wife's enjoyment of coitus with another man or men; a contented cuckold.
- 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, New York Review of Books 2001, p.67:
- To see […] a wittol wink at his wife's honesty, and too perspicuous in all other affairs […].
- 1885, Sir Richard Francis Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, "Night 13"
- So the Ifrit cried at her, "Thou whorest and makest me a wittol with thine eyes;" and struck her so that her head went flying.
- 1960, John Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor
- God help the husband that obliges his wife's least whim: he'll be a wittol ere he's two years wed!
- 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, New York Review of Books 2001, p.67:
- (Britain, dialect, obsolete) A bird, the wheatear.
Translations
a contented cuckold
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