wedlock, n.
(ˈwɛdlɒk)
Forms: 1 wedlác, 2–3 wedlac, (Orm. weddlac), 3–4 wedlak(e, wedlayk, 4 weddelak, wedlek, (5 vedlak), 6 wedlaike; 4–7 wedlok, 4–6 wedloke, 5–7 wedlocke, 7– wedlock.
[OE. wedlác, f. wed pledge, wed n. + -lác suffix forming nouns of action: see -lock.
In two vocabularies of the 11th c. wedlác renders L. arrabo earnest-money; but the sense, if it existed, did not survive into ME.]
† 1. The marriage vow or obligation. Chiefly in phrases, to hold wedlock, keep wedlock, to be faithful in marriage; to break (one's) wedlock, to commit adultery. Obs.
| a 1100 Aldhelm Gloss. in Zeitschr. f. deutsches Alterthum IX. 498/2 Pacta sponsalia refutans, wedlac wiðsacende. c 1200 Ormin 2499 And tohh wass heh & soþ weddlac Haldenn onn eȝȝþerr hallfe. c 1230 Hali Meid. 19 Ȝif ha hare wedlac laheliche halden. c 1275 XI Pains of Hell 105 in O.E. Misc. 150 Heo þat her wedlac brekeþ To heore muþe þe flod takeþ. c 1385 Chaucer L.G.W. 295 For alle kepid they here maydynhed Or ellis wedlek. 1426 Audelay Poems 3 Kepe ȝoure wedloke. 1450–1530 Myrr. Our Ladye ii. 207 How wedlocke betwyxte man and woman shulde be kepte after the lawe of god. c 1511 1st Eng. Bk. Amer. (Arb.) Introd. 35/2 There is..noman so hardy that dare breke his wedloke. 1523 Ld. Berners Froiss. (1812) I. xxi. 30 Howe be it she kept but euyll the sacrament of matrimony, but brake her wedloke. 1526 Tindale Matt. v. 32 And whosoever maryeth her that is divorsed, breketh wedlocke. 1553 T. Wilson Rhet. Pref. A iii, None remembred the true obseruation of wedlocke. 1579 Rice Invect. Vices E iv, Christe aunswered,..Thou shalte not breake wedlocke: Thou shalte not kill. 1604 Shakes. Oth. v. ii. 142 æmil. That she was false to Wedlocke? Oth. I, with Cassio. 1611 ― Wint. T. v. i. 124 Your Mother was most true to Wedlock. |
2. The condition of being married; marriage as a state of life or as an institution; matrimonial relationship. Now only in literary or legal use.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 206 Uor hwuso hit euer is idon,..bute one ine wedlake, hit is deadlich sunne. c 1230 Hali Meid. (Titus MS.) 13 Hit [sc. coition] is tah in wedlac summes weis to þolien. Ibid. 33 Wedlac haueð hire frut þritti fald in heuene; widewehad, sixti fald. 1303 R. Brunne Handl. Synne 11201 For many come neuer yn wedlak But for þe fyrst cunnaunt þat men spak. c 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. x. 202 (MS. T.) Siþ þe lawe haþ y-grauntid þat iche man haue a make in maner of wedlak. c 1386 Chaucer Merch. T. 20 Noon oother lyf, seyde he, is worth a bene, For wedlok is so esy and so clene That in this world it is a Paradys. 1387 Trevisa Higden IV. 353 In a nyȝt whan þei hadde i-payde dette of wedlok eyþer to oþer. c 1440 York Myst. xiii. 261 In lele wedlak þou lede þe. a 1450 Mirk's Festial 108 Yf scho had conceyuet out of wedlocke, þe Iewes wold haue sayde scho had ben a lechore. 1490 Caxton Eneydos xiii. 46 Iuno, the goddesse of wedlocke. 1548–9 Bk. Com. Prayer, Marriage 14 b, Forasmuche as N. and N. haue consented together in holye wedlocke. 1576 Fleming Panopl. Epist. 287 They put away their wyues, and enter againe into wedlocke. 1582 Stanyhurst æneis ii. (Arb.) 68 Of Venus in wedlock thee daughter [Veneris nurus]. 1595 Shakes. John i. i. 117 Your brother is Legittimate, Your fathers wife did after wedlocke beare him. 1597 Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. lxxiii. §2 That kind of loue which is the perfectest ground of wedlocke is seldome able to yeeld any reason of it selfe. 1634 Sir T. Herbert Trav. 39 [The Banians] so extreamely honour Wedlocke, that they seldome are vnmarried at seuen yeares of age. 1671 Milton Samson 353, I pray'd for Children, and thought barrenness In wedlock a reproach. 1765 Foote Commissary i. 9, I look upon wedlock to be a kind of lottery. 1797 S. James Narr. Voy. 170 He offered Haswell his sister in wedlock. 1807 Crabbe Par. Reg. ii. 362 Children from wedlock we by laws restrain. 1829 Lytton Devereux i. i, Sir Arthur had two children by wedlock. 1854 Milman Lat. Christ. vi. iii. (1864) III. 441 Heribert himself, the great Archbishop, was a married man; his wedlock had neither diminished his power nor barred his canonisation. 1879 Dixon Windsor I. iv. 34 In her early days of wedlock, he neglected her. |
| fig. c 1400 26 Pol. Poems xxii. 25 To god, thi wedlok wiþ loue holde. c 1530 Tindale Jonah Prol. (1863) B ij b, This euell..nacion (which breake y⊇ wedlocke of faith wherwith they be maried vn to God). |
| transf. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 203 Instructed thus, produce him [the stallion] to the Fair; And join in Wedlock to the longing Mare. |
b. born in (or † under) wedlock,
out of wedlock: said distinctively of legitimate or illegitimate offspring. Now the most frequent use of the
n.| c 1205 Lay. 395 Assaracus heuede enne broþer þe wes under wedlac iboren. 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 8261 Som þat er in lele wedlayk born. c 1400 Gosp. Nicodemus (G.) 252 In wedlayk [v.rr. wedlake, wedloyke] was he born. 1470–85 Malory Arthur x. xxiii. 451 Sire Aglouale was his fyrste sone begoten in wedlok. 1547 Test. Ebor. (Surtees) VI. 262 His bretheren and susters gotten in wedlaike. 1634 Canne Necess. Separ. v. 219 Those children..which are born under wedlock. 1675 Charac. Town-Gallant 2 He is so bitter an Enemy to Marriage, that one would suspect him born out of Lawful Wedlock. 1765 Blackstone Comm. I. 434 A legitimate child is he that is born in lawful wedlock. 1824 W. Irving T. Trav. II. ii. 25, I forgave the fellow..his two heinous crimes, of having been born in wedlock, and inheriting my estate. 1891 E. Peacock N. Brendon II. 97 He did not believe that little Bessy was born in wedlock. 1911 Encycl. Brit. XVI. 379/2 The question remains, how far, if at all, English law recognizes the legitimacy of a person born out of wedlock. |
c. In particularized sense: A matrimonial union; a married life.
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. ix. 152 And þus þourw cursed caym cam care vppon erthe; And al for þei wrouȝt wedlokes aȝein goddis wille. 1450–1520 Myrr. Our Ladye ii. 206 Thys lesson tellyth..how holy a wedlocke was betwyxte Ioachym and Anne. Ibid. 207 Whyle he [God] behelde all the rightwys and honeste wedlockes that shulde be from the fyrste makeynge of man vnto the laste day. 1581 J. Studley Seneca's Herc. Œtæus ii. 197 O woefull wight, it pitieth vs to see Thy wedlock in this tickle state to bee. 1624 Fletcher Rule a Wife v. (1640) 64 Tis sacriledge to violate a wedlock. 1825 Scott Betrothed xii, It was then your mother..of whose unhappy wedlock you have spoken? 1846 Jerrold St. Giles xxxiv, And Snipeton, his wife in her winding-sheet, might so have solemnised a second wedlock. |
† d. A marriage ceremony, wedding.
Obs.| a 1300 K. Horn (Camb. MS.) 1254 Hi Runge þe belle Þe wedlak for to felle. |
† 3. A wife.
Obs.| 1561 T. Nuce Seneca's Octavia iv. i. F iij, Cæsars wedlock are you. 1567 Turberv. Ovid's Epist. 149 b, [Ulysses says] But I, not forcing of their giftes, did loue my wedlock best. 1567 Golding Ovid's Met. ix. (1593) 213 He heard his wedlocke shreeking out, and did her calling knowe. 1601 B. Jonson Poetaster iv. iii, Which of these is thy wedlocke, Menelavs? thy Hellen? 1605 Chapman All Fooles i. ii. 118 Valerio, here's a simple meane for you To lye at racke and manger with your wedlocke. 1606 Marston Parasitaster ii. i. C 3, But to lie with ones brothers wedlocke, O my deere Herod, tis vile and vncommon lust. 1611 Middleton & Dekker Roaring Girl i. i. E 4 b, He watches For quarrelling wedlockes, and poore shifting sisters. 1617 Fletcher Valentinian v. vi, The most true constant lover of his wedlock. 1690 Dryden Don Sebast. ii. ii, For his Wedlock for all her haughtiness, I find her coming. |
4. Comb. a. Simple
attrib. (now
rare or
Obs.) as in
wedlock-band,
wedlock-bed,
wedlock-debt,
wedlock-knot, etc.
| 1422 Yonge tr. Secreta Secret. 194 To pay wedlak dette hit is of no syn. 1557 Will J. Amcottes (Somerset Ho.), In the choyse of their wedlockmates. 1586 T. B. La Primaud. Fr. Acad. i. 457 By wedlocke copulation we came into the world. 1593 Shakes. 3 Hen. VI, iii. iii. 243 Ile ioyne mine eldest daughter..To him forthwith, in holy Wedlocke bands. 1596 ― Merch. V. v. i. 32 She kneeles and prayes For happy wedlocke houres. 1600 ― A.Y.L. v. iv. 150 Whiles a Wedlocke Hymne we sing. 16.. Middleton, etc. Old Law v. i, Will it please you to taste of the wedlock courtesie? 1624 Davenport City Night-cap ii. (1661) 17 Since our marriage, I have perform'd So fairly all judicial wedlock-offices, That [etc.]. 1635 J. Taylor (Water P.) Old Old Man B 3 b, She dead, he ten yeares did a Widdower stay; Then once more ventred in the Wedlock way. 1671 Milton Samson 986 Who to save Her countrey from a fierce destroyer chose Above the faith of wedlock-bands. Ibid. 1009 Love-quarrels oft in pleasing concord end, Not wedlock-trechery endangering life. 1819 Scott Noble Moringer i, It was the noble Moringer in wedlock bed he lay. 1824 Symmons tr. æschylus' Agamemnon 64 To Ilion came the wedlock-woe. |
† b. wedlock-bound a., bound in marriage;
wedlock-breaker, an adulterer; so
wedlock-breaking n. and a. Obs.| ? a 1400 in Horstm. Altengl. Leg. (1881) 370 Werne euery man..Off wedloke-brekynge wer to be. c 1500 Mayd Emlyn in Anc. Poet. Tracts (Percy Soc.) 23 All wedlocke brekers. c 1530 Tindale Jonah Prol. (1863) B ij b, This euell & wedlocke breakinge nacion..seke a signe. 1552 Latimer Serm. Lincs. i. (1562) 67 Thou shalt not be a wedlock breaker. 1608 Topsell Serpents 267 Wedlocke breakers, & Cockold-makers. 1667 Milton P.L. x. 905 Alreadie linkt and Wedlock-bound To a fell Adversarie. |
Hence
† ˈwedlock v. trans., to unite in marriage (in
quots. pass.); also (nonce-use),
to wedlock it, to get married.
† ˈwedlockable a., marriageable.
† ˈwedlockhood, the married state.
| c 1230 Hali Meid. (Titus MS.) 33 Of þeos þre had, meidenhad & widewehad, & te þridde, wedlachad [Bodley MS. wedlac]. 1557 T. Phaer æneid vii. (1558) S iij, One doughter did remayne..Now husbandripe, now wedlockable full, of laufull yeres. 1644 Milton Divorce ii. xv. (ed. 2) 60 Is it not most likely that God in his Law had more pitty towards man thus wedlockt, then towards the woman that was created for another. 1674 N. Fairfax Bulk & Selv. Ep. Ded., That man..will never feel himself less at ease for being wedlockt but to one. 1737 Ozell Rabelais iii. ix. 50 A single Person is never seen to reap the Joy and Solace that is found among those that are Wedlockt. Wedlock it then in the Name of God, quoth Pantagruel. |