husband

1. 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.
2. 2

   A manager of property; one who has the care of another's belongings, owndom, or interests; a steward; an economist.UK

3. 3

   A prudent or frugal manager.archaic

   • God knows how little time is left me, and may I be a good husband, to improve the short remnant thereof.
4. 4

   The master of a house; the head of a family; a householder.dated

5. 5

   A tiller of the ground; a husbandman.

   • […] a withered tree, through husbands toyle, Is often seene full freshly to have florisht […]
   • The painfull husband plowing up his ground, Shall finde all fret and rust both pikes and shields
6. 6

   The male of a pair of animals.

   • Husband of the Herd
7. 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. 8

   A polled tree; a pollard.UKdialectal

syn. baron · his lordship · hubby · husband · lord and master · old man

ant. wife

1. 1

   To manage or administer carefully and frugally; use to the best advantage; economise.transitive

   • And for my meanes, I'll husband them so well, They shall go farre with little.
2. 2

   To conserve.transitive

   • 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
3. 3

   To till; cultivate; farm; nurture.obsoletetransitive

   • Land so trim and rarely husbanded.
4. 4

   To provide with a husband.archaictransitive

   • Thinke you, I am no ſtronger then my Sex Being ſo Father'd, and ſo Husbanded?
5. 5

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