marital, a.
(ˈmærɪtəl)
Also 7 -all.
[ad. L. marītālis, f. marīt-us husband: see -al1. Cf. F., Sp., Pg. marital, It. maritale.]
1. Pertaining or relating to a husband; husbandly.
| 1616 Bullokar Eng. Expos., Maritall, husbandlike. 1644 Maxwell Prerog. Chr. Kings 23 A woman by her choice and consent designeth her husband, but the maritall power and dominion is onely from God. 1726 Ayliffe Parergon 49 Christian Charity as well as Marital Affection. 1861 Thackeray Philip vii, The two poor sisters had had to regulate their affections by the marital orders, and to be warm, cool, moderate, freezing, according to their husbands' state for the time being. |
2. Of or pertaining to marriage; matrimonial, connubial.
| 1603 Florio Montaigne iii. v. (1632) 476 He depainteth her some what stirring for a maritall Venus. 1660 Jer. Taylor Duct. Dubit. ii. ii. rule iii. §27 The Dearnesses of Brother and Sister..if they were not made holy and separate by a law would easily change into Marital loves. 1840 Thackeray Paris Sk.-bk. (1872) 81 What a deal of marital discomfort might have been avoided. 1858 Ld. St. Leonards Handy-Bk. Prop. Law xii. 79 The restitution of marital rights would be enforced if sought for. 1902 A. Thomson Lauder & Lauderdale xiii. 131 Although the two Houses were in marital relationship, they were almost always at daggers drawn. |
3. Special collocation. marital rape Law (orig. U.S.), sexual intercourse forced on a woman by her husband, knowingly against her will.
| 1975 S. Brownmiller Against our Will xii. 381 The most famous *marital rape in literature..is that of Irene by Soames in The Forsyte Saga. 1986 Economist 15 Mar. 40/3 The country which outlaws marital rape in half its states..also allows television cameras into many of its courts. |
Hence mariˈtality, excessive affection of a wife for her husband (correlative to uxoriousness); ˈmaritally adv., as if married, as a married person.
| 1812 W. Taylor in Monthly Mag. XXXIII. 42 The uxoriousness of the husband was in neither case requited by the maritality of the wife. a 1832 Bentham Deont. Wks. 1843 I. 235 Maritality, uxoriality, paternity, maternity, filiality. 1869 Daily News 13 Feb., The illegitimate children are the offspring of people living maritally and as quietly as married people. 1880 Daily Tel. 13 Nov., Another of the prisoners, Kviatkoffsky, with whom she had been living maritally, according to Nihilist notions of ethics. |