Hŭs'band1, n.
(hŭz/band), n. [O. Eng. hosebonde, husbonde, A-S. hūsbon-da, the master of the house or family, from hūs, house, and bon-da, boor, peasant, Dan. & Sw. bonde, Icel. bóndi, contracted from bāandi, dwelling, from búa, Goth. bauan, A-S. búan, to dwell, p. pr. bāand, bāende, dwelling, bēnd, one dwelling, inhabitant, farmer; Dan. huus-bond, Sw. husbonde, the master of the house. By an easy transition, this word soon came to signify a married man, the inhabitant, master, or head of the house generally being married.]
Sense 1. A male head of a household; a manager of domestic concerns; one who orders the economy of a family; especially, a cultivator; a tiller; a husbandman. [Obs.]
In these fields The painful husband, plowing up his ground, Shall find all fret with rust, both pikes and shields. Hakewill.
He is the neatest husband for curious ordering his domestic and field accommodations, and what pertains to husbandry, that I have ever seen. Evelyn.
Sense 2. A married man; one wedded to a wife;—the correlative of wife.
This careful husband had been long away, Whom his chaste wife and little children mourn. Dryden.
Sense 3. The male of a pair of animals. [R.] Dryden.
Sense 4. One who manages or directs with prudence and economy; a frugal person.
God knows how little time is left me, and may I be a good husband, to improve the short remnant left me. Fuller.
A ship's husband (Naut.), the owner of a ship who manages its concerns in person.