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MATRIMONY
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The ceremony or sacrament of marriage
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("matrimony" is a kind of...):
sacrament (a formal religious ceremony conferring a specific grace on those who receive it; the two Protestant ceremonies are baptism and the Lord's Supper; in the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church there are seven traditional rites accepted as instituted by Jesus: baptism and confirmation and Holy Eucharist and penance and holy orders and matrimony and extreme unction)
Sense 2
Meaning:
The state of being a married couple voluntarily joined for life (or until divorce)
Example:
God bless this union
Synonyms:
marriage; matrimony; spousal relationship; union; wedlock
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Hypernyms ("matrimony" is a kind of...):
marital status (the condition of being married or unmarried)
Domain category:
jurisprudence; law (the collection of rules imposed by authority)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "matrimony"):
bigamy (the state of having two spouses at the same time)
common-law marriage (a marriage relationship created by agreement and cohabitation rather than by ceremony)
endogamy; inmarriage; intermarriage (marriage within one's own tribe or group as required by custom or law)
exogamy; intermarriage (marriage to a person belonging to a tribe or group other than your own as required by custom or law)
marriage of convenience (a marriage for expediency rather than love)
misalliance (an unsuitable alliance (especially with regard to marriage))
monandry (the state of having only one husband at a time)
monogamousness; monogamy (the practice or state of having only one spouse at a time)
open marriage (a marriage in which each partner is free to enter into extraneous sexual relationships without guilt or jealousy from the other)
cuckoldom (the state of a husband whose wife has committed adultery)
polygamy (the condition or practice of having more than one spouse at a time)
sigeh (a Shiite tradition of temporary marriage permitted in Iran that allows a couple to specify the terms of their relationship; can last from a few minutes to 99 years)
Derivation:
matrimonial (of or relating to the state of marriage)
Context examples:
'When two sympathetic hearts meet in the marriage state, matrimony may be called a happy life.'
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Perhaps, said Elinor, thirty-five and seventeen had better not have any thing to do with matrimony together.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
And such is your definition of matrimony and dancing.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony, in a moment.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
The explanation of the intent of matrimony was gone through; and then the clergyman came a step further forward, and, bending slightly towards Mr. Rochester, went on.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
I have no thoughts of matrimony at present.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
Ah! You have been in a bad school for matrimony, in Hill Street.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
My reasons for marrying are, first, that I think it a right thing for every clergyman in easy circumstances (like myself) to set the example of matrimony in his parish; secondly, that I am convinced that it will add very greatly to my happiness; and thirdly—which perhaps I ought to have mentioned earlier, that it is the particular advice and recommendation of the very noble lady whom I have the honour of calling patroness.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
Very soon, my—that is, Miss Eyre: and you'll remember, Jane, the first time I, or Rumour, plainly intimated to you that it was my intention to put my old bachelor's neck into the sacred noose, to enter into the holy estate of matrimony—to take Miss Ingram to my bosom, in short (she's an extensive armful: but that's not to the point—one can't have too much of such a very excellent thing as my beautiful Blanche): well, as I was saying—listen to me, Jane!
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
I do not recommend matrimony at present to Emma, though I mean no slight to the state, I assure you.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
