Wedlock definition

wĕdlŏk
The state of being married; matrimony.
noun
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0
The state of being married; matrimony.
noun
2
1
The state of being married; matrimony.
noun
1
0
out of wedlock
  • Of parents not legally married to each other:
    Born out of wedlock.
idiom
1
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Other Word Forms

Noun

Singular:
wedlock
Plural:
wedlocks

Idioms and Phrasal Verbs

Origin of wedlock

  • Middle English wedlocke from Old English wedlāc wedd pledge -lāc n. suff. expressing activity

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • From Middle English wedlok, wedlocke (“wedlock, marriage, matrimony"), from Old English wedlāc (“marriage vow, pledge, plighted troth, wedlock"), from wedd (“pledge") + -lāc, suffix denoting activity or process, equivalent to wed +"Ž -lock.

    From Wiktionary

Wedlock Sentence Examples

  • After only a few months of wedlock his wife died, and Gallatin was once more alone.

  • Being born out of wedlock of mixed race parentage implies a double illegitimacy and a highly precarious social existence.

  • If Poland does not wish to enter into lawful wedlock with Russia, it is not for us to interfere with her.

  • Levi Johnston became a household name in 2008, when his girlfriend Bristol Palin, daughter of Sarah Palin, announced her pregnancy out of wedlock.

  • The natural phenomena of Switzerland, and the political complications in the Valtellina, where the Catholic inhabitants had thrown off the yoke of the Grisons and called in the Papal and Spanish troops to their assistance, delayed him some time; but he reached Venice in time to see the ceremony of the doge's wedlock with the Adriatic. After paying his vows at Loretto, he came to Rome, which was then on the eve of a year of jubilee - an occasion which Descartes seized to observe the variety of men and manners which the city then embraced within its walls.

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Words near wedlock in the Dictionary