Wedlock

wedlock
    n 1: the state of being a married couple voluntarily joined for
         life (or until divorce); "a long and happy marriage"; "God
         bless this union" [syn: {marriage}, {matrimony}, {union},
         {spousal relationship}, {wedlock}]
    

Wedlock \Wed"lock\, v. t.
   To marry; to unite in marriage; to wed. [R.] "Man thus
   wedlocked." --Milton.
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Wedlock \Wed"lock\, n. [AS. wedl[=a]c a pledge, be trothal; wedd
   a pledge + l[=a]c a gift, an offering. See {Wed}, n., and cf.
   {Lake}, v. i., {Knowledge}.]
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   1. The ceremony, or the state, of marriage; matrimony. "That
      blissful yoke . . . that men clepeth [call] spousal, or
      wedlock." --Chaucer.
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            For what is wedlock forced but a hell,
            An age of discord or continual strife? --Shak.
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   2. A wife; a married woman. [Obs.] --B. Jonson.
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   Syn: See {Marriage}.
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34 Moby Thesaurus words for "wedlock":
      a world-without-end bargain, alliance, bed, bond of matrimony,
      bridebed, cohabitation, conjugal bond, conjugal knot, coverture,
      holy matrimony, holy wedlock, husbandhood, ill-assorted marriage,
      intermarriage, interracial marriage, marriage, marriage bed,
      marriage sacrament, match, matrimonial union, matrimony,
      mesalliance, misalliance, miscegenation, mixed marriage,
      nuptial bond, sacrament of matrimony, spousehood, union,
      wedded bliss, wedded state, weddedness, wedding knot, wifehood