husband

Etymology

From Middle English husbonde, housbonde, from Old English hūsbonda, hūsbunda (“male head of a household, householder, master of a house”), 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 West Scandinavian búa, East Scandinavian bôa = to build, plow; compare German bauen, der Bauende. Cognate with Icelandic húsbóndi (“head of household”), Faroese húsbóndi (“husband”), Norwegian husbond (“head of household, husband”), Swedish husbonde (“master”), Danish husbond (“husband”) (< Old Danish husbonde).

noun

1. The master of a house; the head of a family; a householder.
2. A tiller of the ground; a husbandman.
   He is the neatest husband for curious ordering his domestick and field accommodations.
3. A 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
   So I went and fetched 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 carried, 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, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, Chapter 16
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.
   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. 1922, Ben Travers, chapter 6, in A Cuckoo in the Nest
5. The male of a pair of animals.
6. (UK) 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. (UK dialectal) A polled tree; a pollard.

verb

1. (transitive) To manage or administer carefully and frugally; use to the best advantage; economise.
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.
   Land so trim and rarely husbanded.
4. (transitive) To provide with a husband.
5. (transitive) To engage or act as a husband to; assume the care of or responsibility for; accept as one's own.