husbands

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of husband.

   Several husbands had gathered in the kitchen to argue about the playoffs.

   The support group welcomed husbands whose partners were undergoing treatment.

   Note

   The plural is formed by simply adding -s, and today it is read first as married men. The noun's older meanings take the same plural: a steward of another's property, a prudent manager (archaic), a householder (dated), a tiller of the ground, or the male of a pair of animals. The identical spelling also belongs to the verb meaning "manages frugally". A direct object after it, as in husbands its resources, marks the verb.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of husband.

   A careful farmer husbands the soil rather than draining it of nutrients.

   The foundation husbands its endowment to fund grants for decades to come.

   Note

   Every sense of this verb is transitive, so it always needs an object. That object is usually something worth stretching, such as land, money or supplies. The living meaning is careful, frugal management, close to economizes and conserves. The farming sense of tilling is obsolete, and "provides with a husband" is archaic. So in modern prose, she husbands her savings reads as thrift, not matchmaking.

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