Category:Husband

Hus"band, n. Etym: [OE. hosebonde, husbonde, a husband, the master of the house or family, AS. h master of the house; h house + bunda, bonda, householder, husband; prob. fr. Icel. h house master, husband; h house + b dwelling, inhabiting, p.pr. of b to dwell; akin to AS. b, 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.

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.

---excerpt from the Illustrated Bible Dictionary

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