henpecked

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"Come and tell all them henpecked, my brave son, how did you manage to be the only one in this line?"

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Definitions (2)

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  1. Governed or controlled entirely by one's wife; domineered over. A step-dame too I have, a cursed she, Who rules my hen-peck'd sire, and orders me. Dryden, tr. of Virgil's Eclogues, iii. 49. Socrates, who is by all accounts the undoubted head of the sect of the hen-pecked, owned and acknowledged that he owed great part of his virtue to the exercise which his useful wife constantly gave it. Steele, Spectator, No. 479. He [Rip Van Winkle) was … an obedient, hen-pecked husband…. Those men are most apt to be obsequious and conciliating abroad who are under the discipline of shrews at home. Irving, Rip Van Winkle.

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Examples (50)

  • Mike narrated as we watched how much they did indeed seem like an old married couple as Joshua mainly acted like a henpecked husband. —  Reality TV Magazine
  • "Come and tell all them henpecked, my brave son, how did you manage to be the only one in this line?" —  Yahoo! Answers: Latest Questions
  • Malkovich, as a henpecked, bow-tie-sporting analyst, and McDormand as a health-club manager looking to reinvent herself via cosmetic surgery and online dating are both expectedly excellent, and J.K. Simmons damn near steals the movie as a befuddled CIA director. —  AltWeeklies.com Site Feed
  • The trio of anxious chaps - henpecked Herbert Soppitt (Peter Jenner), stingy Councillor Albert Parker (Martin Walker) and not-so-upright Alderman Joseph Helliwell (Alan Stockdill) - provide just the right amount of congratulatory righteousness about their silver celebrations before the revelation about their lack of marital status sends them scuttling to the club.
  • But he's a little bit ... henpecked, don't you know, and can't control his congress. —  Hullabaloo
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Etymologies (1)

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  1. Formerly also henpeckt; from hen + pecked, past participle of peck. The epithet alludes to the not uncommon submission of the domestic cock to the plucking by his hens of his hackle-, saddle-, and even breast feathers.
 

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