husband 
to his wife, a tiller of the ground, < AS. lius- 
boiida, hfisbunda, the master of a house (a fern, 
form husbonde, the mistress of a house, appears 
to occur in one passage, in dat. pi. MtildHtlum) 
( = Icel. husboiidi, the master of a house, a mar- 
ried man, = Sw. husboiide = Dan. husbniuli . 
husbond, master, husband), < Ms, house, + 
bonda, bunda, orig. with long vowel bonila, 
bunda, the master or head of a family, a house- 
holder, a married man (> ME. boiide, a house- 
holder, a man of inferior condition, > E. bond 2 , 
bondman, bondage, etc., which, by confusion 
with bond 1 , have taken on an implication of 
servitude), orifj. a contr. of AS. bfiende (= Icel. 
bondi, contr. of buandi, boandi), dwelling, ppr. 
of buan = Icel. bua, dwell: 8ee bond 2 , bondman, 
etc., boor, boicer^, bower , bit/ 2 , be*. Husband 
thus means lit. 'house-dweller,' i. e. house- 
holder. According to a popular etymology, it is 
sometimes explained as house^ + band 1 .} If. 
The master of a bouse ; the head of a family ; 
a householder. 
The htwfboiute that IB wis warneth his bus. 
Old EIUJ. Homilies (ed. M orris), p. 247. 
2. A man joined in marriage to a woman, who 
bears the correlative title of wife. 
Sche was a worthy woman al hire lyfe, 
Housbondes at chtrche dore Bche hadde fyfe. 
Chaucer, Gen. Prol. to C. T., L 480. 
And when the woman herde hem BO Bey, she was 
abaisshed, and selde, . . . "but I be-seche yow telle it 
not my housbondf, for than he wolde me sle." 
Merlin (E. E. T. S.), L 84. 
The law appointeth no man to be an husband; but If a 
man have betaken himself unto that condition, it giveth 
him then authority over his own wife. 
Hooter, Eccles. Polity, viii. 2. 
8ee my guardian, her husband. Unfashionable as the 
word is, it is a pretty word : the house-baud that ties all 
together : is not that the meaning ? 
Richardson, Sir Charles Orandison, VI. 376. 
3f. A tiller of the ground ; a husbandman. 
Bootes, eocurs, myttens mot we were ; 
For husbondes and hunters all this goode IB. 
Palladius, Husbondrie (E. E. T. 8.), p. 43. 
But loke ye do no housbonde harme 
That tylleth with his plough. 
l.niril Geste of Robyn Bode (Child's Ballads, V. ir. i. 
In those fields 
The painful husband plowing up his ground 
Khali flnd, all fret with rust, both pikes and shields. 
Haknmtl. 
4. A manager of property; one who has the 
care of another's belongings or interests; a 
steward; an economist. [Archaic.] 
He took measure 
Of his dear time like a most thrifty husband. 
Chapman, Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois, ill. 1. 
Those are the best husband* of any Saluages we know ; 
for they prouide Corne to serue them all the yeare, yet 
spare. Quoted in Capt. John Smith's Works, II. 64. 
The Lord Treasurer Cranfeild, a good hunliaiul of the 
entrates [revenues] of the Exchequer.' 
Up. Hacket, Abp. Williams, i. S3. 
5. A polled tree; a pollard: so called in hu- 
morous allusion to the traditional bald head of 
husbands with energetic wives. [Prov. Eng.] 
That all trees called Pollengers or Huabords [read hus- 
bonds], and all other trees at the time of the Trespass, etc. 
Hei/don and Smith's Case, 13 Coke, 67. 
Snip's husband, a man who has the care of a ship or 
ships in port; one who oversees the general interests of a 
ship or a lineof ships, as berthing, provisioning, repairing, 
entering and clearing, etc. 
The skip's husband he was looking over the papers, and 
" What's this?" says he, "how come the ship to run up a 
tailor's bill?" S. O. Jewett, Deephaven, p. 159. 
husband (huz'band), v. t. [< ME. husbonden, 
< Itiisbonde, the master of a house: see husband.] 
1. To manage r administer carefully and fru- 
gally; use to the best advantage; economize: 
as, to husband one's resources. 
Let us therefore husband time in which we may gain 
eternity. Jer. Taylor, Works (ed. 1836), I. 366. 
The Dutch frugally husband out their pleasures. 
iliMsniith, Citizen of the World, xviii. 
2f. To till, as land; cultivate; farm. 
A pitte in it, for wynes white and rede 
That over renne of ignoraunt kepynge, 
To make is oon goode poynte of Inubondyny. 
Palladius, Husbondrie (E. E. T. S.), p. ia 
Sonne also of the Snnne and Moone, who . . . created 
the Progenitors of the present Indians, and taught them 
to husband the earth and the trees. 
Purchas, Pilgrimage, p. 880. 
The Natural Woods on the South-west side the House 
are well Husbanded, and cut into small and bigger Alleys, 
to save the Trees. Lister, Journey to Paris, p. 196. 
3. To provide with a husband. 
Think you I am no stronger than my sex, 
Being so father'd and so husbanded > 
Shak., J. C., li 1. 
I am not so set on wedlock as to choose 
But where I list, nor yet so amorous 
That I must needs be husbanded. 
Tennyson, Queen Mary, ii. 
2926 
4. To engage or act as a husband to ; figura- 
tively, to assume the care of or responsibility 
for; accept as one's own. 
That were the most, if he should husband you. 
Mm*., Lear, v. 3. 
Nor should I deem it wise in me to huxband a doctrine 
on this or any other palpably unprovable proposition. 
U. H. Bancroft, Central America, I. 318. 
husbaudable (huz'ban-da-bl), a. [< husband + 
-able.} Capable of feeing husbanded, or man- 
aged with economy. [Rare.] 
husbandage (huz'ban-daj), n. [< husband + 
-;/<.] Naut., the allowance or commission of 
a ship's husband for attending to business mat- 
tt-rs in the interest of the ship. 
husband-fieldt (huz'band-feld), . A cultivated 
field. 
Some swamp obscure, 
That poisons the glad husband-field with dearth. 
Scott, Don Roderick, The Vision, 1. 39. 
husbandhood (huz'band-hud), . [< husband 
+ -hood.} The state of being a husband. 
husband-land (huz'band-land), n. (X husband 
+ land.'} Formerly, "a virgate equivalent to 
two oxgangs; a yard-land ; in Scotland, twenty- 
six acres that is, as much as could be tilled 
with a plow or mowed with a scythe by the 
husbandman. 
In my note on rating by the oxgang (North Riding Rec- 
ords, III. 178) I have supplied proof that, among the va- 
rious other specific names for the divers ranks in society 
as it existed down to the first half of the seventeenth cen* 
tury, the appellation husbandman still distinguished the 
man of the class next below the yeoman, and that he was 
literally the holder of the orthodox husband-land consist- 
ing of two oxgangs. 
./. C. Atkinson, N. and Q., 6th ser., XII. 363. 
husbandless (huz'band-les), a. [< husband + 
-less.] Destitute of a husband. 
His children father-lease, 
And husbandlesse his wife, 
May wand'ring begg. 
Sir P. Sidney, Ps. cix. 
husbandly (huz'band-li), a. and adv. [< hus- 
band + -ly 1 .} I. a. 1. Like a (good) husband. 
Nor is it manly, much less husbandly, 
To expiate any frailty ill your wile 
With churlish strokes. 
Chapman, Buasy D'Ambois, v. 1. 
2. Frugal; thrifty. [Bare.] 
In. I'll turn 'em into money. 
V". That's thy most husbandly course, i' faith, boy. 
Chapman, May-Day, i. 2. 
Upon the whole do find that the lat times, in all their 
management, were not more husbandly than we. 
Pepys, Diary, IV. 127. 
II. adv. Frugally; economically. [Rare.] 
The noble client reviewed his bill over and over, for 
however moderately and husbandly the cause was man- 
aged, he thought the sum total a great deal too much for 
the lawyers. Roger Sorth, Lord Ouilford, I. 36. 
husbandman (huz'band-man), n. ; pi. husband- 
men (-men). [< HK"husbondman, husbandman, 
householder; < husband + man.'} If. The mas- 
ter of a house ; the head of a family. 
Syk lay the housbondman whos that the place is. 
Chaucer, Summoner's Tale, 1. 60. 
The! [maidens] lat lyjt be husbandmen, 
When thei at the ball rene; 
Thei cast hyr love to gong men. 
Songs and Carols (ed. Wright), p. 27. 
2. A farmer; a tiller of the soil; one engaged 
in agriculture. 
And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted 
a vineyard. Gen. ix. 20. 
The royal husbandman appear'd, 
And plough'd, and sow'd, and till'd, 
The thorns he rooted out, the rubbish clear'd. 
And bless'd th' obedient field. 
Dryden, Threnodia Augustalia. 
3f. A husband of property ; an economist. 
He was an excellent husbandman, but had resolved not 
to exceed such a degree of wealth. 
Steele, Spectator, No. 109. 
husbandry (huz'band-ri), . [< ME. hasboiid- 
rie, husbonderye, hosboundrie, domestic econ- 
omy, agriculture (> AF. husbondrie, husbonderie, 
marriage); < husband + -ry.} 1. Management 
of domestic affairs ; domestic economy ; frugal- 
ity; thrift. 
Allso to the buttrey dore ther be xlj. sundrye keyes In 
xij. [men's] hands, wherein symythe to be small husband- 
rye. MS. Cotton, quoted in Piers Plowman's < 'rede 
[(E. E. T. S.X notes, p. 38. 
For litel was hire catel and hire rente : 
By housbondrye of such as God hire sente 
Sche fond hire-self, and eek hire doughtren tuo. 
Chaucer, Nun's Priest's Tale, L 8. 
There's husbandry in heaven ; 
Their candles are all out. Shot., Macbeth, ii. 1. 
5th. This day, not for want, but for good husbandry, I 
sent my father, by his desire, six pair of my old shoes, 
which fit him, and are good. Pfpys, Diary, III. 318. 
hush 
2. The business of a husbandman or farmer; 
farming; agriculture. 
In thingea 1III alle husbondrie mot stande : 
In water, aier, in lande, and gouvernance. 
Palladius, Husbondrie (E. E. T. S.), p. 2. 
Seths Sons, knowing Nature soberly, 
Content with little, fell to Husbandry. 
Sylvester, tr. of Du Bartas's Weeks, ii., The Ark. 
So far as one could Judge from looking over the fields, 
Norwegian huxbandry is yet in a very imperfect state, and 
I suspect that the resources of the soil are not half de- 
veloped. B. Taylor, Northern Travel, p. 24t>. 
3. The product of husbandry or of cultivated 
soil. [Poetical.] 
Alas .' she [Peace] hath from France too long been chas'd ; 
And all her husbandry doth lie on heaps, 
Corrupting in its own fertility. Shak., Hen. V., v. 2. 
Bailiff in husbandry. See baili/. Garden husband- 
ry. See garden. Patrons of Husbandry. 8eeyrange,4. 
huscarlt, . See house-carl. 
huselt, " and v. A Middle English form of 
Itouset. 
hush (hush), P. [< ME. husshen, hussen, hoschen, 
only in the pp. liussht, hunt, hoscht, huyst, and 
whist (> mod. E. whist, a.) = LG. hussen, dim. 
husseken, inhiissken, lull (children) to sleep: cf. 
hiischen, hiisken, swing, rock, husse-busse, a lul- 
laby, MHG. husch, an interj. to denote shiver- 
ing, G. husch, quick! at once! (also translated 
'hush!'), > G. huschen (colloq.), slip off, van- 
ish, = Dan. hysse, v., hush, hys! interj., hush! 
Ult. imitative, the forms 'sh, 'ss, hush, and, with 
a final check, 'sht, 'st, husht, hust, hist, whist, be- 
ing sibilations requiring the least muscular ef- 
fort and admitting of the faintest utterance : 
see hisfl, husht, 'sh, 'st, whist.} I. trans. 1. To 
reduce to silence; make stifl or quiet; check 
or suppress the sound of. 
My lord would speak, my duty hushes me. 
Shak., T. N., v. 1. 
But now a joy too deep for sound, 
A peace no other season knows, 
Hughes the heavens and wraps the ground. 
Bryant, A Summer Ramble. 
With wide wing 
DM- fork-tailed restless kite sailed over her, 
I/ iisli in:/ the twitter of the linnets near. 
\\itlinin Morris, Earthly Paradise, II. 218. 
2. To appease; allay; calm, as commotion or 
agitation. 
It [retirement] . . . huehet and lays asleep those trou- 
blesome passions which are the great disturbers of our re- 
pose and happiness. /;/-. Atterbury, Sermons, I. \. 
All her fears were hush'd together. Cowper, A Fable. 
3. In mining, to clear off (the soil and surface 
dirt), in order to expose the bed-rock, so that it 
can be ascertained whether there are indica- 
tions of a vein or metalliferous deposit. [Not 
used in the U. S.J To hush up, to suppress men- 
tion or discussion of ; procure silence concerning ; keep 
unmentioned or concealed. 
When the plague begins in many places and they cer- 
tainly know ii, they command silence and hush it up. 
Burton, Anat. of Mel., p. 277. 
This matter IB hushed up, and the servants are forbid to 
talk of it Pope. 
II. intrans. To be still; be silent or quiet; 
make no noise. 
At these strangers' presence every one did hush. 
Spemer. 
To hush up, to be silent ; cease ; hold one's tongue. [Col- 
loq.] 
We passed out, Greene following us with loud words, 
which brought the four sailors to the door, when I told 
him to hush up, or I would take him prisoner. 
W. T. Sherman, Memoirs, I. 37. 
hush (hush), interj. [Partly interj., partly impv. 
of hush, v.} Forbear; be still; hist; attend. 
Hush ! here comes Antony. Shak., A. and C., 1. 2. 
"My sister." "Comely too, by all that's fair," 
Said Cyril. "O hush, hush!" and she began. 
Tennyson, Princess, ii. 
Alicia gave him a warning look to stop him, and Russell 
Penton pnt forth his hand with an impressive hush .' 
Mrg. Oliphant, Poor Gentleman, xxiii. 
hush (hush), . [< hush, v.} A state of still- 
ness ; profound quiet. 
It is the hush of night. Byron, Childe Harold, ill. 86. 
As an unbroken hush now reigned again through the 
whole house, I began to feel the return of slumber. 
Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre, xv. 
It broke the desert's hush of awe, 
A human utterance sweet and mild. 
Whittier, Hermit of the Thebaid. 
hush (hush), a. [< hush, v. Earlier h nsht, q. v.] 
Silent; still; quiet. 
The bold wind speechless, and the orb below 
As hush as death. Shot., Hamlet, ii -'. 
Walked through the House, where most people ininhty 
hush, and, methinks, melancholy. I see not a smiling 
face through the whole Court. Pepys, Diary, II. 418. 
