cuckold

American  

[kuhk-uhld] / ˈkʌk əld /

noun

1. the husband of an unfaithful wife.

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verb (used with object)

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

cuckold British  

/ ˈkʌkəld /

noun

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

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verb

1. (tr) to make a cuckold of

Other Word Forms

• cuckoldly adverb
• cuckoldry noun

Etymology

Origin of cuckold

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

Explanation

A cuckold is a man who has been betrayed by his wife. If your wife cuckolds you, she is cheating on you with a different man. This is an old-fashioned word you can find in many Shakespeare plays, though cuckolding is certainly older than Shakespeare and will always exist as long as there are marriages. A man can't cuckold a woman: only a wife can cuckold her husband. By sleeping with another man, she makes her husband a cuckold.

Example Sentences

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 • Aug. 2, 2023

And Anderson stalwarts Murray and Jason Schwartzman own their roles as, respectively, a cuckold dad and a power-mad camp counselor, but they remain on the periphery, like wandering jesters.

From Slate • May 24, 2012

Whether the horns are those of a satyr, a devil or a cuckold we don’t know, but they suggest that in Mr. Taylor’s world, one man’s curse may be another’s blessing.

From New York Times • Feb. 2, 2012

Samuel Barnett as the helpless cuckold, Vanessa Kirby as the tricked Isabella, Richard Lintern as the Mussolinesque Duke and Andrew Woodall as a sly courtier also give good, well-defined performances.

From The Guardian • Apr. 27, 2010

Wha first shall rise to gang awa, A cuckold coward loun is he: Wha last beside his chair shall fa’, He is the king amang us three.

From The Complete Works of Robert Burns: Containing his Poems, Songs, and Correspondence. With a New Life of the Poet, and Notices, Critical and Biographical by Allan Cunningham by Burns, Robert

Related Words

• cuck