cuckold

[ kuhk-uhld ]

noun

1. the husband of an unfaithful wife.

verb (used with object)

1. to make a cuckold of (a husband).

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

Derived Forms

• ˈcuckoldry, noun

Other Words From

• cuckold·ly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of cuckold¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of cuckold¹

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

Example Sentences

He is also hell-bent on making Orgon a cuckold.

From Los Angeles Times

And as Martin, Whishaw is as Britishly brittle-yet-vulnerable as only he can be, the stoic, sad-eyed cuckold trying to rise above and move on from the fray.

From Los Angeles Times

In recent years, I’ve played a lot of alpha-dominant males so I thought it would be interesting to play the cuckold, the jilted lover, if you will.

From Los Angeles Times

FEB 2002: During a group photograph at an informal EU summit in Spain, Berlusconi raises two fingers behind the head of then Spanish foreign minister Josep Pique in the traditional Latin gesture for a cuckold.

From Reuters

A lesser movie would have reduced him to a complication or, worse, a comic-relief cuckold, and the waves of laughter I heard at the movie’s Sundance premiere sounded, in some ways, like a response to that lesser movie.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• cuck