Word.ws English Dictionary

husbandly

/ˈhʌzbəndli/

husbandly adjective: characteristic of a husband; proper and fitting for a husband; marital.

Adjective

husbandly (comparative more husbandly, superlative most husbandly)

  1. Characteristic of a husband; proper and fitting for a husband; marital.
    • One thing she still would not allow was that horrible erotic act which was a commonplace of American and European films, but she took complaisantly enough now to his other husbandly advances.1956, Anthony Burgess, Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 177
    • He strives for husbandly allure in slow-motion ballads: “Love You Gently” and the role-reversing “Trading Places,” in which he calls for her to be the aggressive one and offers to make breakfast the next morning.2008 May 26, Jon Pareles, “New CDs”, in New York Times
  2. (obsolete) Pertaining to a husbandman or husbandry.
  3. (obsolete) Frugal; economical.
    • Even he that has the most of all is nevertheless oblig'd to be Frugal and Husbandly, and not to lavish or squander away what he has [...].1707, Ofspring Blackall, The blessedness of the poor in spirit

Forms of husbandly

comparativemore husbandly
superlativemost husbandly

Origin of husbandly

From Middle English housbondly, equivalent to husband + -ly.

Words formed from husbandly

Questions about husbandly

What does husbandly mean?
Husbandly means characteristic of a husband; proper and fitting for a husband; marital.
What part of speech is husbandly?
Husbandly is an adjective.
How do you pronounce husbandly?
Husbandly is pronounced /ˈhʌzbəndli/ (UK).

Words near husbandly in the dictionary

  1. husbandlands
  2. husbandless
  3. husbandlessness
  4. husbandlike
  5. husbandliness
  6. husbandly
  7. husbandman
  8. husbandmen
  9. husbando
  10. husbandoes
  11. husbandos

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: husbandly (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-husbandly.wav.

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