Word.ws English Dictionary

henpeck

Syllables: hen·peckUK/ˈhɛnpɛk/US/ˈhɛnˌpɛk/

henpeck verb: to nag persistently.

Verb

henpeck (third-person singular simple present henpecks, present participle henpecking, simple past and past participle henpecked)

  1. (chiefly by a wife) To nag persistently.
    • But—Oh! ye lords of ladies intellectual, Inform us truly, have they not hen-peck'd you all?1819 July 15, [Lord Byron], Don Juan, London: […] Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC, canto I, (please specify the stanza number)
    • He wears a beard, and he likes his women to be slaves. What man doesn’t? What man would be henpecked, I say? We will cut off all the heads in Christendom or Turkeydom rather than that.1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter LIV, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published...
  2. To peck or peck at another bird.
    • Mrs Allsop and her bar-blue brother travelled well together in good times, but after they ducketed she would chase him from niche to niche, henpecking him while Monte tried to collar them and collect their rings.1982, Paul Radley, My Blue-Checker Corker and Me, Sydney: Fontana/Collins, page 104

Noun

henpeck (plural henpecks)

  1. (rare) A man who is meekly subservient to his wife.
    • One can't swear that Dewan Bahadur Yama Dharma Rao was a henpeck ; nor could be said that the practical Lady was a cockpeck.1953, B. V. P., Chronicles of Dewan Bahadur, Yama Dharma Rao, page 44
    • The moment he allows the emphasis to swing the other way he becomes a sit-by-the-fire, a cockerel, a drone, a henpeck. A woman steps into this man's sphere at her peril.1985, James Mallahan Cain, Roy Hoopes, Michael Hinden, 60 Years of Journalism, page 40

henpeck meaning in Kannada

henpeck in Kannada

ಕಯ್ಗೊಂಬೆಯಾಗಿಸು, ಹಿಡಿತದಲ್ಲಿರಿಸು, ಕಾಡು

Forms of henpeck

Verb
third-person singular presenthenpecks
present participlehenpecking
past participlehenpecked
pasthenpecked
alternative formhen-peck
alternative formhen peck
Noun
pluralhenpecks

Origin of henpeck

From hen + peck.

Words formed from henpeck

Questions about henpeck

What does henpeck mean?
Henpeck means to nag persistently.
What is henpeck in Kannada?
Henpeck in Kannada is ಕಯ್ಗೊಂಬೆಯಾಗಿಸು, ಹಿಡಿತದಲ್ಲಿರಿಸು, ಕಾಡು. See Henpeck meaning in Kannada.
What part of speech is henpeck?
Henpeck can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce henpeck?
Henpeck is pronounced /ˈhɛnpɛk/ (UK).
What is the past tense of henpeck?
The past tense of henpeck is henpecked.

Words near henpeck in the dictionary

  1. henotheistic
  2. henotheistically
  3. henotheists
  4. henotic
  5. Henotikon
  6. henpeck
  7. henpecked
  8. henpecker
  9. henpeckers
  10. henpeckery
  11. henpecking

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: henpeck (page history and authors); henpeck (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-henpeck.ogg.

Cite this entry: “henpeck.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/henpeck. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.