wedlock

English

Etymology

From Middle English wedlok, wedlocke (“wedlock, marriage, matrimony”), from Old English wedlāc (“marriage vow, pledge, plighted troth, wedlock”); synchronically analyzable as wed +‎ -lock.

Pronunciation

Noun

wedlock (countable and uncountable, plural wedlocks)

  1. The state of being married.
    Synonyms: matrimony, marriage
  2. (obsolete) A wife; a married woman.
    • 1601, Ben Jonson, The Poetaster:
      Which of these is thy Wedlock, Menelaus? thy Hellen? thy Lucrece? that we may do her Honour; mad Boy?

Derived terms

Translations
state of being married — see marriage,‎ matrimony
married woman — see wife
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