marry Meaning, Definition & Usage

Mar"ry transitive verb

Etymology

OE. marien, F. marier, L. maritare, fr. maritus husband, fr. mas, maris, a male. See Male, and cf. Maritral.

Wordforms

imperfect & past participle Married ; present participle & verbal noun Marrying

Definitions

1. To unite in wedlock or matrimony; to perform the ceremony of joining, as a man and a woman, for life; to constitute (a man and a woman) husband and wife according to the laws or customs of the place.

   Tell him that he shall marry the couple himself. Gay.

2. To join according to law, (a man) to a woman as his wife, or (a woman) to a man as her husband. See the Note to def. 4.

   A woman who had been married to her twenty-fifth husband, and being now a widow, was prohibited to marry. Evelyn.

3. To dispose of in wedlock; to give away as wife.

   Mæcenas took the liberty to tell him [Augustus] that he must either marry his daughter [Julia] to Agrippa, or take away his life. Bacon.

4. To take for husband or wife. See the Note below. ✍ We say, a man is married to or marries a woman; or, a woman is married to or marries a man. Both of these uses are equally well authorized; but given in marriage is said only of the woman.

   They got him [the Duke of Monmouth] . . . to declare in writing, that the last king [Charles II.] told him he was never married to his mother. Bp. Lloyd.

5. Figuratively, to unite in the closest and most endearing relation.

   Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you. Jer. iii. 14.

   Ham. Nav. Encyc.

Mar"ry intransitive verb

Definitions

1. To enter into the conjugal or connubial state; to take a husband or a wife.

   I will, therefore, that the younger women marry. 1 Tim. v. 14.

Mar"ry interjection

Definitions

1. Indeed ! in truth ! -- a term of asseveration said to have been derived from the practice of swearing by the Virgin Mary. Obs. Shak.