The Collaborative International Dictionary
Wittol \Wit"tol\, n. [Said to be for white tail, and so called in allusion to its white tail; but cf. witwal.]
(Zo["o]l.) The wheatear. [Prov. Eng.]
A man who knows his wife's infidelity and submits to it; a tame cuckold; -- so called because the cuckoo lays its eggs in the wittol's nest. [Obs.]
--Shak.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context archaic English) A man who knows, condones and even encourages his wife's enjoyment of coitus with another man or men; a contented cuckold. 2 (context UK dialect obsolete English) A bird, the wheatear.
Usage examples of "wittol".
I know you an ass, And that you would most fain have been a wittol, If fortune would have let you?
In one hutch there was a poor ragged old eagle owl, evidently quite miserable and neglected: in another a small boy unknown to them, a wittol who could only roll his eyes and burble when the witch came near.
Utterbol and drag that swine and wittol from his hall and slay him, and give his folk a good day.
Nentres of Garlot am I, and I come To fight with thee if thou wilt league with me Against the wittol that has filched the crown Of England, backed by scurvy sorcery.
This somehow gave rise to the notion, then, that a wittol was a cuckold who knew his own condition.
He was insulting and slandering your Joanna in the fullest manner, exulting in her misfortune, making your love unto her the complaisance of a wittol, and your marriage bed a brothel.
These are the wittols, treated with a mixture of repugnance, contempt and superstitious awe.
The wittols bury dead, torture captives, and serve as emissaries between tribes.
The Uldras of the Retent disdain criptids as mounts fit only for wittols, sexual deviates and women.
These are the wittols, treated with a mixture of repugnance, contempt and superstitious awe.