Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition

Wedlock

Wed′lock

,
Noun.
[AS.
wedlāc
a pledge, be trothal;
wedd
a pledge +
lāc
a gift, an offering. See
Wed
,
Noun.
, and cf.
Lake
,
Verb.
I.
,
Knowledge
.]
1.
The ceremony, or the state, of marriage; matrimony.
“That blissful yoke . . . that men clepeth [call] spousal, or wedlock.”
Chaucer.
For what is
wedlock
forced but a hell,
An age of discord or continual strife?
Shakespeare
2.
A wife; a married woman.
[Obs.]
B. Jonson.
Syn. – See
Marriage
.

Wed′lock

,
Verb.
T.
To marry; to unite in marriage; to wed.
[R.]
“Man thus wedlocked.”
Milton.

Webster 1828 Edition

Wedlock

WEDLOCK

,
Noun.
Marriage; matrimony.

WEDLOCK

,
Verb.
T.
To marry. [Little used.]

Definition 2024

wedlock

wedlock

English

Noun

wedlock ‎(countable and uncountable, plural wedlocks)

  1. The state of being married; matrimony.
  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?

Synonyms

Derived terms

Etymology

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 +‎ -lock.

Similar Results