wedlock

English

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. Compare bridelock.

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

• matrimony
• marriage

Derived terms

• bedlock
• out of wedlock