v. In a two-person team, to produce a positive result by having one team member perform well when the other member does not.
2001
You've got to break up cliques, or you'll find players husband-and-wifing it on the court.
2000 (earliest)
The Americans' most telling weapon was their putting, mostly Duval's. That and the fact that, as Woods put it, they 'hubby-wifed' it pretty well, with one bailing the other out in times of trouble.
This verb, with its underlying sense of the two players helping each other, is probably derived from the older verb husband-and-wife, "to have two players on a team control the majority of the offensive play." I believe this phrase was coined by former college basketball coach Al McGuire.