From Middle English husbonde, housbonde, from Old English hūsbonda, hūsbunda, from Old Norse húsbóndi, from hús + bóndi, equivalent to house + bond.

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.

• IPA: /ˈhʌz.bənd/

husband (plural husbands)

1. A man in a marriage or marital relationship, especially in relation to his spouse.

   Synonyms: hubby

   You should start dating so you can find a suitable husband.

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

     The husband and wife are one person in law.

   • 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 ↗:

     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.

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

     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.

2. (UK) A manager of property; one who has the care of another's belongings, owndom, or interests; a steward; an economist.
3. (archaic) A prudent or frugal manager.
   • 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC ↗, pages 273–274 ↗:

     [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.

4. (somewhat dated) The master of a house; the head of a family; a householder.
5. A tiller of the ground; a husbandman.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC ↗:

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

   • 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 ↗:

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

   • 1681 September 9 (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 ↗:

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

6. The male of a pair of animals.
   • 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 ↗:

     Husband of the Herd

7. A large cushion with arms meant to support a person in the sitting position; a husband pillow.

   While reading her book, Sally leaned back against her husband, wishing it were the human kind.

8. (UK dialectal) A polled tree; a pollard.

• See also Thesaurus:husband

• French: mari, époux
• German: Ehemann, Mann, Gemahl, Gatte, Ehegatte
• Italian: marito
• Portuguese: marido, esposo
• Russian: муж
• Spanish: marido, esposo

husband (husbands, present participle husbanding; simple past and past participle husbanded)

1. (transitive) To manage or administer carefully and frugally; use to the best advantage; economise.
   • 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]:

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

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.
   • 1672 May 29 (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 ↗:

     Land so trim and rarely husbanded.

4. (transitive, archaic) To provide with a husband.
   • 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:

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

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

• French: ménager
• Italian: dosare
• Portuguese: economizar, poupar, conservar
• Spanish: ahorrar, manejar con economía

1. Surname.
2. An unincorporated community in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, named after Harmon Husband.