cuckold

[ kuhk-uhld ]
See synonyms for cuckold on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. the husband of an unfaithful wife.

verb (used with object)
  1. to make a cuckold of (a husband).

Origin of cuckold

1
1200–50; Middle English cukeweld, later cok(k)ewold, cukwold<Anglo-French *cucuald (compare Middle French cucuault), equivalent to Old French cocucuckoo + -ald,-alt pejorative suffix (see ribald); apparently originally applied to an adulterer, in allusion to the cuckoo's habit of laying its eggs in other birds' nests

Other words from cuckold

  • cuck·old·ly, adverb

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use cuckold in a sentence

  • I know, a hundred honest men cuckolds, honestly and not unbeseemingly; a worthy man is pitied, not disesteemed for it.

    The Essays of Montaigne, Complete | Michel de Montaigne
  • A thousand Cuckolds shall that Husband be, That marries thee, thou art so mischievous.

    The Mad Lover | Francis Beaumont
  • Cucullus non facit monachum, my learned counsel; all are not cuckolds that seem so, nor all seem not that are so.

  • All knots are begun by "loops" or rings commonly known to mariners as "Cuckolds' Necks" (Fig. 5).

    Knots, Splices and Rope Work | A. Hyatt Verrill
  • When all cuckolds shall be at a general rendezvous, thou shouldst be their standard-bearer.

British Dictionary definitions for cuckold

cuckold

/ (ˈkʌkəld) /


noun
  1. a man whose wife has committed adultery, often regarded as an object of scorn

verb
  1. (tr) to make a cuckold of

Origin of cuckold

1
C13 cukeweld, from Old French cucuault, from cucu cuckoo; perhaps an allusion to the parasitic cuckoos that lay their eggs in the nests of other birds

Derived forms of cuckold

  • cuckoldry, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012