wedlock Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun the state of being a married couple voluntarily joined for life (or until divorce)
    union; spousal relationship; matrimony; marriage.
    • a long and happy marriage
    • God bless this union

WordNet

Wed"lock noun
Etymology
AS. wedlac a pledge, be trothal; wedd a pledge + lac a gift, an offering. See Wed, n., and cf. Lake, v. i., Knowledge.
Definitions
  1. The ceremony, or the state, of marriage; matrimony. "That blissful yoke . . . that men clepeth [call] spousal, or wedlock." Chaucer.
    For what is wedlock forced but a hell, An age of discord or continual strife? Shak.
  2. A wife; a married woman. Obs. B. Jonson. Syn. -- See Marriage.
Wed"lock transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To marry; to unite in marriage; to wed. R. "Man thus wedlocked." Milton.

Webster 1913