henpeck
verb
- of a woman, to continually criticize or nag one’s male partner
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈhɛnpɛk/ / /ˈhɛnˌpɛk/
noun
Etymology: From hen + peck.
- A man who is meekly subservient to his wife.
“One can't swear that Dewan Bahadur Yama Dharma Rao was a henpeck ; nor could be said that the practical Lady was a cockpeck.”
“The moment he allows the emphasis to swing the other way he becomes a sit-by-the-fire, a cockerel, a drone, a henpeck. A woman steps into this man's sphere at her peril.”
verb
Etymology: From hen + peck.
- To nag persistently.
“But—Oh! ye lords of ladies intellectual, Inform us truly, have they not hen-peck'd you all?”
“He wears a beard, and he likes his women to be slaves. What man doesn’t? What man would be henpecked, I say? We will cut off all the heads in Christendom or Turkeydom rather than that.”
- to peck or peck at another bird.
“Mrs Allsop and her bar-blue brother travelled well together in good times, but after they ducketed she would chase him from niche to niche, henpecking him while Monte tried to collar them and collect their rings.”