Meaning

2 senses

  1. (countable, uncountable)The state of being married.

    the state of being a married couple voluntarily joined for life (or until divorce)

  2. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)A wife; a married woman.

Examples

11 sentences

  1. She had sex out of wedlock.

    Amastan · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  2. He was born out of wedlock.

    Amastan · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  3. Tom was born out of wedlock.

    Ergulis · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  4. She was born out of wedlock.

    Ussis · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  5. Because he was unemployed, their wedlock failed.

    Tatoeba contributors · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

Origin

From Middle English wedlok, wedlocke (“wedlock, marriage, matrimony”), from Old English we

From Middle English wedlok, wedlocke (“wedlock, marriage, matrimony”), from Old English wedlāc (“marriage vow, pledge, plighted troth, wedlock”). By surface analysis, wed + -lock.

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

plural: wedlocks
Singularwedlock
Pluralwedlocks

regular

Synonyms

4 synonyms
marriageB1matrimony
Close in meaning
  • the state of being a married couple voluntarily joined for life (or until divorce):marriagematrimonyunionspousal relationship

Word family

5 related words
Relatedbridelock
Derivedbedlockbreak wedlocknonwedlockwedlocked

Lessons for this word

1 lessons

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
weddingA2wedgeWednesdayA1wee

Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.

wedlock — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto