Word.ws English Dictionary

husbands-in-law

husbands-in-law is the plural of husband-in-law.

Meaning of husband-in-law

Noun

husband-in-law (plural husbands-in-law)

  1. A husband in law only, such as one who has abandoned his wife
    Synonyms:
    co-husband
  2. A husband who provides legally required support, but not love or affection
  3. (colloquial) Another husband of one's wife. Typically used in cases of divorce and subsequent remarriage.
    • the collection of people who would gather in either of the two houses for Christmas and Thanksgiving, and sometimes again in summer. This collection involved former mothers-in-law, former husbands, ex-wives of former husbands, and doddering uncles from distant marriages, as well as, of course, the...2002, John Hanson Mitchell, The Wildest Place on Earth: Italian Gardens and the Invention of Wilderness, page 38

Questions about husbands-in-law

What is husbands-in-law the plural of?
Husbands-in-law is the plural of husband-in-law.

Words near husbands-in-law in the dictionary

  1. husbands
  2. husbands and wives
  3. husbands up
  4. husbands' boat
  5. husbands' boats
  6. husbands-in-law
  7. husbandship
  8. husbandships
  9. husbandwoman
  10. husbandwomen
  11. husbian

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: husbands-in-law (page history and authors); husband-in-law (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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Cite this entry: “husbands-in-law.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/husbands-in-law. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.