Usage
What does cuckoldry mean? Cuckold is an insulting term for a husband whose spouse has had a sexual affair. Cuckoldry can mean one of two things: the act of making man a cuckold (by having an affair with his spouse), or the state of being a cuckold. Cuckold and cuckoldry are applied only to men. Both terms are intended to be insulting and shameful to the man they are applied to. Cuckoldry is sometimes also used to describe behaviors of animals—which is perhaps the only way it or cuckold can be used that’s not offensive.
Etymology
Origin of cuckoldry
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Everyone knows that ending a sentence with a period is just about the rudest thing one human can do to another, murder and cuckoldry notwithstanding.
From Slate • Aug. 15, 2018
Dr. Larmuseau and other scientists developed other methods to get an unbiased look at cuckoldry.
From New York Times • Apr. 8, 2016
Beverly I. Strassmann, a University of Michigan anthropologist who gathered the data on paternity rates in Mali, agreed that widespread cuckoldry “was an urban legend. It seemed to have a life of its own.”
From New York Times • Apr. 8, 2016
In the role of Grausis, whom Bassanes has hired to mind Penthea and keep cuckoldry at bay, Olwen Fouéré appears to have been forbidden to play up the character’s sly, earthy humor.
From New York Times • Feb. 14, 2012
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
