uxorious

Borrowed from Latin uxōrius (“of or pertaining to a wife”), from uxor (“wife”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ʌkˈsɔːɹ.i.əs/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ʌkˈsɔɹ.i.əs/, /ʌɡˈzɔɹ.i.əs/

• Audio (UK):

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• Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: -ɔːɹiəs

uxorious (comparative more uxorious, superlative most uxorious)

1. Very devoted and possibly submissive to one's wife; exessive uxorial devotion
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker ; nd by Robert Boulter ; nd Matthias Walker, , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC, lines 437–446:

     With theſe in troop
     Came Aſtoreth, whom the Phœnicians call'd
     Aſtarte, Queen of Heav'n, with creſcent Horns;
     To whoſ,e bright Image nightly by the Moon
     Sidonian Virgins paid their Vows and Songs,
     In Sion alſo not unſung, where ſtood
     Her Temple on th' offensive Mountain, built
     By that uxorious King, whoſe heart though large,
     Beguil'd by fair Idolatreſſes, fell
     To Idols foul.

   • 1825 June 22, [Walter Scott], Tales of the Crusaders. , volume IV (The Talisman), Edinburgh: [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 129:

     In truth, Richard was a fond—almost an uxorious husband.

   • 1836, “Boz” [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], Sketches by “Boz,” Illustrative of Every-day Life, and Every-day People. , volume II, London: John Macrone, , →OCLC, pages 1–2:

     Mr. Watkins Tottle was a rather uncommon compound of strong uxorious inclinations, and an unparalleled degree of anti-connubial timidity.

   • 1872, Samuel Butler, chapter XXIV, in Erewhon ‎, London: Trübner & Co., →OCLC, page 226:

     The king, who was a most uxorious husband, at first ridiculed the notion, but at length consented, as he did to everything else on which her majesty had set her heart.

   • 1908, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], The Elusive Pimpernel, London: Hutchinson & Co. , →OCLC:

     People smiled a little when Sir Andrew Ffoulkes' name was mentioned, some called him effeminate, others uxorious, his fond attachment for his pretty little wife was thought to pass the bounds of decorum.

   • 1910 October, Jack London, Burning Daylight, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC:

     But Daylight was not unduly uxorious. He lived his man's life just as she lived her woman's life.

   • 1991 October 12, The Advertiser:

     She was the cross her cuckolded, incompatible husband had to bear, and he was—beneath those fantastic uniforms—the pathetic, uxorious human aggregate of love and good intentions, which, quite frankly, bored her most of the time.

• doting

• maritorious
• whipped

• uxoriousness

• uxorial
• uxoricide