cuckold

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“
Or cuckolds; for your cuckold is your most terrible tickler of lechery.

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Definitions (12)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. noun A man married to an unfaithful wife.
  2. transitive verb To make a cuckold of.
  3. Word History
    The allusion to the cuckoo on which the word cuckold is based may not be appreciated by those unfamiliar with the nesting habits of certain varieties of this bird. The female of some Old World cuckoos lays its eggs in the nests of other birds, leaving them to be cared for by the resident nesters. This parasitic tendency has given the female bird a figurative reputation for unfaithfulness as well. Hence in Old French we find the word cucuault, composed of cocu, "cuckoo, cuckold,” and the pejorative suffix -ald and used to designate a husband whose wife has wandered afield like the female cuckoo. An earlier assumed form of the Old French word was borrowed into Middle English by way of Anglo-Norman. Middle English cokewold, the ancestor of Modern English cuckold, is first recorded in a work written around 1250.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (5)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

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Examples (50)

  • 'Assignations, cuckold -- Jesus, that went out with -- with With modern education? —  Cleary, Melissa - Dog Mystery 04 - Skull and Dog Bones
  • He thought drowsily, as he settled in his bed, that cuckold was the word. —  Ruined City by Nevil Shute
  • "You're telling me I'm a cuckold, and I'm supposed to remain calm You may well be a cuckold, since I have no idea what one is," said his wife. —  AHMM,May2006
  • And I am, as I should be, a sort of civil perquisite to a whore-master, called a cuckold, heh? —  The Comedies of William Congreve Volume 1 [of 2]
  • He had a head just suited for a cuckold, this blockhead! —  The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Volume VIII.
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Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English cokewald, from Anglo-Norman *cucuald, from cucu, the cuckoo, from Vulgar Latin *cuccūlus, from Latin cucūlus.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Early modern English also cockwold, cockward, cokward, etc.; from Middle English cokolde, cokewold, cockewold, kukwald, kukeweld, etc., with excrescent -d, from Old French coucuol, couquiol, modern F. coca = Provencal cugol, a cuckold, literally a cuckoo (so called with opprobrious allusion to the cuckoo's habit of depositing her eggs in the nests of other birds), from Latin cuculus, a cuckoo: see cuckoo.
  2. from cuckold, n.
 

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/ˈkəkəld/
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