husband

plural husbands

1. 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.

   4 more examples

   The husband and wife are one person in law.

   1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC

   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.

   1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], →OCLC, page 0016

   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.

   1921, Ben Travers, chapter 6, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC

   Smooth and slender and naked, Mary Rittersdorf faced her husband.

   1964, Philip K. Dick, “THIRTEEN”, in Clans of the Alphane Moon, United States: Ace Books, →OCLC; republished London: HarperCollinsPublishers, 1996, →ISBN, page 193

   Synonyms: hubby, mister

2. UKA manager of property; one who has the care of another's belongings, owndom, or interests; a steward; an economist.
3. archaicA prudent or frugal manager.

   God knows how little time is left me, and may I be a good husband, to improve the short remnant thereof.

   1645, Thomas Fuller, Good Thoughts in Bad Times, Occasional Meditations: V

   1 more example

   [S]o I went and fetch’d a good Dram of Rum, and gave him; for I had been ſo good a Husband of my Rum, that I had a great deal left: When he had drank it, I made him take the two Fowling-Pieces, which we always carry’d, and load them with large Swan-Shot, as big as ſmall Piſtol Bullets; then I took four Muſkets, and loaded them with two Slugs, and five ſmall Bullets each; and my two Piſtols I loaded with a Brace of Bullets each; I hung my great Sword as uſual, naked by my Side, and gave Friday his Hatchet.

   1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, pages 273–274

4. datedThe master of a house; the head of a family; a householder.
5. A tiller of the ground; a husbandman.

   He is the neatest husband for curious ordering his domestick and field accommodations.

   1681 September 8 (Gregorian calendar), John Evelyn, “[Diary entry for 30 August 1681]”, in William Bray, editor, Memoirs, Illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Evelyn, […], 2nd edition, volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […]; and sold by John and Arthur Arch, […], published 1819, →OCLC

   2 more examples

   […] a withered tree, through husbands toyle, Is often seene full freshly to have florisht […]

   1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC

   The painfull husband plowing up his ground, Shall finde all fret and rust both pikes and shields

   1627, G[eorge] H[akewill], An Apologie of the Power and Prouidence of God in the Gouernment of the World. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Iohn Lichfield and William Turner, […], →OCLC

6. The male of a pair of animals.

   Husband of the Herd

   1697, Virgil, “The Third Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC

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.

   Synonyms: husband pillow

8. UKdialectalA polled tree; a pollard.

present singular third person husbands · participle present husbanding · participle past husbanded · past husbanded

1. transitiveTo manage or administer carefully and frugally; use to the best advantage; economise.

   And for my meanes, I'll husband them so well, They shall go farre with little.

   c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iv]

2. transitiveTo 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. obsoletetransitiveTo till; cultivate; farm; nurture.

   Land so trim and rarely husbanded.

   1672 May 28 (Gregorian calendar), John Evelyn, “[Diary entry for 19 May 1672]”, in William Bray, editor, Memoirs, Illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Evelyn, […], 2nd edition, volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […]; and sold by John and Arthur Arch, […], published 1819, →OCLC

4. archaictransitiveTo provide with a husband.

   Thinke you, I am no ſtronger then my Sex Being ſo Father'd, and ſo Husbanded?

   1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 116, column 2

5. transitiveTo engage or act as a husband to; assume the care of or responsibility for; accept as one's own.

plural Husbands

1. countableuncountableA surname.
2. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, United States, named after Harmon Husband.