Adjacent Words

Husband definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

HUS'BAND, n. 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. Leviticus 19. Deutoronomy 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, v.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.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a married man; a woman's partner in marriage [syn: husband, hubby, married man] [ant: married woman, wife] v
1: use cautiously and frugally; "I try to economize my spare time"; "conserve your energy for the ascent to the summit" [syn: conserve, husband, economize, economise] [ant: blow, squander, waste]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English husbonde, from Old English h?sbonda master of a house, from Old Norse h?sb?ndi, from h?s house + b?ndi householder; akin to Old Norse b?a to inhabit; akin to Old English b?an to dwell — more at bower Date: 13th century 1. a male partner in a marriage 2. British manager, steward 3. a frugal manager • husbandly adjective II. transitive verb Date: 15th century 1. a. to manage prudently and economically b. to use sparingly ; conserve 2. archaic to find a husband for ; mate • husbander noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. a married man esp. in relation to his wife. --v.tr. manage thriftily; use (resources) economically. Derivatives: husbander n. husbandhood n. husbandless adj. husbandlike adj. husbandly adj. husbandship n. Etymology: OE husbonda house-dweller f. ON húsbóndi (as HOUSE, bóndi one who has a household)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Husband Hus"band, v. 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. --Shak. 2. To cultivate, as land; to till. [R.] Land so trim and rarely husbanded. --Evelyn. 3. To furnish with a husband. [R.] --Shak.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Husband Hus"band, n. [OE. hosebonde, husbonde, a husband, the master of the house or family, AS. h?sbonda master of the house; h?s house + bunda, bonda, householder, husband; prob. fr. Icel. h?sb[=o]ndi house master, husband; h?s house + b?andi dwelling, inhabiting, p. pr. of b?a to dwell; akin to AS. b?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.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(husbands) Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English. A woman's husband is the man she is married to. Eva married her husband Jack in 1957... N-COUNT: oft poss N

Easton's Bible Dictionary

i.e., the "house-band," connecting and keeping together the whole family. A man when betrothed was esteemed from that time a husband (Matt. 1:16, 20; Luke 2:5). A recently married man was exempt from going to war for "one year" (Deut. 20:7; 24:5).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

huz'-band ('ish; aner): In the Hebrew household the husband and father was the chief personage of an institution which was regarded as more than a social organism, inasmuch as the family in primitive Semitic society had a distinctively religious character and significance. It was through it that the cult of the household and tribal deities was practiced and perpetuated. The house-father, by virtue of being the family head, was priest of the household, and as such, responsible for the religious life of the family and the maintenance of the family altar. As priest he offered sacrifices to the family gods, as at first, before the centralization of worship, he did to Yahweh as the tribal or national Deity. We see this reflected in the stories of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and in the Book of Job. This goes far to explain such records as we have in Ge 31:53; 32:9, and the exceptional reverence that was paid the paternal sepulchers (1Sa 20:6). Abraham was regarded as being the father of a nation. It was customary, it would seem, to assign a "father" to every known tribe and nation (Ge 10). So the family came to play an important and constructive part in Hebrew thought and life, forming the base upon which the social structure was built, merging gradually into the wider organism of the clan or tribe, and vitally affecting at last the political and religious life of the nation itself.

The husband from the first had supreme authority over his wife, or wives, and children. In his own domain his rule was well-nigh absolute. The wife, or wives, looked up to him as their lord (Ge 18:12). He was chief (compare Arabic sheik), and to dishonor him was a crime to be punished by death (Ex 21:15,17). He was permitted to divorce his wife with little reason, and divorces were all too common (De 22:13,19,28,29; Isa 50:1; Jer 3:8; 5:8; Mal 2:16, etc.). The wife seems to have had no redress if wronged by him. Absolute faithfulness, though required of the wife, was apparently not expected or exacted of the husband, so long as he did not violate the rights of another husband. In general among Eastern people women were lightly esteemed, as in the Japhetic nations they came to be. Plato counted a state "disorganized" "where slaves are disobedient to their masters, and wives are on equality with their husbands." "Is there a human being," asks Socrates, "with whom you talk less than with your wife?" But from the first, among the Hebrews the ideal husband trained his household in the way they should go religiously, as well as instructed them in the traditions of the family, the tribe, and the nation (Ge 18:19; Ex 12:26; 13:8; De 6:7, etc.). It was due to this, in part at least, that, in spite of the discords and evils incident to polygamy, the Hebrew household was nursery of virtue and piety to an unusual degree, and became a genuine anticipation of the ideal realized later in the Christian home (1Co 7:2 ff; Eph 5:25; 1Pe 3:7).

Used figuratively of the relation (1) between Yahweh and His people (Isa 54:5; Jer 3:14; Ho 2:19 f); (2) between Christ and His church (Mt 9:15; 2Co 11:2; Eph 5:25; Re 19:7; 21:2).

George B. Eager

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. n. Spouse, married man. II. v. a. Save, economize, spend frugally, manage with frugality.

Foolish Dictionary

The next thing to a wife. From Eng. hussy, woman, and bond, tie. Tied to a woman.

Moby Thesaurus

benedict, boss, bridegroom, budget, bwana, chef, chief, church dignitary, conserve, consort, ecclesiarch, economize, elder, employer, enforce economies, goodman, groom, guru, helpmate, helpmeet, hoard, hold back, hubby, keep, keep back, keep by one, keep in reserve, keep in store, keep on hand, keep within compass, lay by, liege, liege lord, lord, lord paramount, make ends meet, man, manage, married man, master, mate, mister, old man, other half, overlord, padrone, paramount, partner, paterfamilias, patriarch, patron, preserve, put apart, put aside, put by, put something aside, rabbi, reserve, retain, sahib, save, save up, scrape, scrape and save, scrimp, seigneur, seignior, set apart, set aside, set by, skimp, spouse, starets, store, teacher, withhold