husband, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

husband n.

1. a prostitute’s client.

1761

Memoirs of [...] Jane D****s 22: In the meantime, added she, as I have got no husband for tonight, we’ll go and have some supper.

2. the supposedly ‘aggressive’ partner of a homosexual couple.

1898		P. Norroy Art of Child-Love 16: The present system is to allow two children to occupy [...] one bed. Among the other girls the elder is called the husband and the younger the wife [...] This system, of course, encourages private intercourse between the children of the most free and passionate description.
1912		Horsham Times (Vic.) 19 July 10/2: And after her experiences the ‘girl husband’ is all in favor of being a man. ‘It is,’ she says, ‘so much easier to live as a man than a girl’.
1932		Arrow (Sydney) 8 Jan. 5/4: During supper Mona flirted outrageously with Mavis, and Mavis’s ‘husband’ Edna was too drunk to notice. Soon Mona and Mavis disappeared into the bedroom, and the door was shut behind them.
1934		L. Berg Prison Nurse (1964) 62: Broadway Rose was transferred back, from the hospital. Of course, Lester her ‘husband’ was simply overjoyed to see ‘her’!
1949		‘Swasarnt Nerf’ et al. Gay Girl’s Guide 18: The following words or phrases are frequently used, seriously or facetiously, in a sense the same as, or equivalent to, their meaning in straight English (Slang) [...] husband.
1954		M. Bodenheim My Life and Loves in Greenwich Village (1961) 63: She is a lesbian and he is a ‘fairy’ and she obviously looks upon herself as the ‘husband’.
1961		‘Lou Rand’ Gay Detective (2003) 80: My husband is around here somewhere. I’d better find him.
1968		N. Heard Howard Street 47: About five male couples were in the place – queens with their ‘husbands’.
1972		(con. 1965) E. Newton Mother Camp 80: Jeri and his butch ‘husband’ [...] were a handsome and well known couple.
1997		D. Farson Never a Normal Man 170: Moreover, the ‘husband’ was one of the handsomest young waiters on the ship.
2005		E. White My Lives 192: One was more honest with a ‘sister’ than with a ‘husband’.

3. see hubby n. (2)

SE in slang uses

In compounds

husband beater (n.)

(Aus.) a long-handled parasol.

1895

Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 37: Husband Beater, a long handled parasol.

husband game (n.)

(US Und.) a confidence trick where a prostitute has her ‘husband’ knock on the door after she has been paid but before she has performed.

1859		Wkly Varieties (Boston, MA) 3 Sept. 5/2: He is a patron of prostitutes, having been bled upon one occasion [...] by that highly interesting and ingenious process called the ‘husband game’.
1868		James D. McCabe Secrets of the Great City 337: the ‘husband game’ The street-walkers are adepts in deceit. Their chief object is to procure money, and they do not hesitate to plunder their victims in order to obtain it. One of their favorite ‘dodges’ is called the ‘husband game.’ This is played as follows. A man is picked up on the street, after nine o’clock, and carried to the girl’s room. He is asked to pay his money in advance, which he does. The girl then turns the lights down, and seems about to prepare to retire for the night, when a loud knocking is heard. The girl, in alarm, informs him that she is a married woman, and that her husband has returned. She begs him to escape, or he will be killed. The visitor, terribly frightened, is glad to get off through a side door. His money is not returned, but the woman promises to meet him the next night, which engagement, of course, is never kept.
1869		G. Ellington Women of N.Y. 203: They open ‘panel-houses,’ or help play the ‘husband game’.

husband’s tea (n.) [? a husband’s inadequacy as opposed to that of a lover]

very weak tea.

1873		Sl. Dict.
1889–90		Barrère & Leland Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

husband-tamer (n.)

(Aus.) a rolling pin [the stereotyped weapon of the aggrieved wife].

2012

(con. 1943) G.S. Manson Irish Fandango [ebook] It took four goes before she dropped the husband-tamer and went limp.