Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To take in marriage; marry.
- v. To give (a woman) in marriage.
- v. To give one's loyalty or support to (a cause, for example); adopt.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A spouse.
- To promise, engage, or bestow in marriage; betroth.
- To take in marriage; marry; wed.
- To take to one's self, or make one's own; embrace; adopt; become a participator or partizan in: as, to espouse the quarrel of another; to espouse a cause.
- To pledge; commit; engage.
Wiktionary
- v. transitive To become/get married to.
- v. transitive To accept, support, or take on as one’s own (an idea or a cause).
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To betroth; to promise in marriage; to give as spouse.
- v. To take as spouse; to take to wife; to marry.
- v. To take to one's self with a view to maintain; to make one's own; to take up the cause of; to adopt; to embrace.
WordNet 3.0
- v. take in marriage
- v. choose and follow; as of theories, ideas, policies, strategies or plans
- v. take up the cause, ideology, practice, method, of someone and use it as one's own
Etymologies
- From Middle English espousen, from Old French espouser, from Latin spōnsāre, present active infinitive of spōnsō (frequentative of spondeō), from Proto-Indo-European *spend- (Wiktionary)
- Middle English espousen, from Old French espouser, from Latin spōnsāre, frequentative of spondēre, to betroth. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The solution you espouse is far, far worse than the supposed problem.”
Two Cowenian Tenure Claims, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
“The stand that Pastor Hagee and Parsley espouse is not anything new or revelational as "new" or "recently".”
“And unfettered advocacy for one, as you espouse, is clearly more Orwellian.”
“It would almost be funny if it was not so pathetic and hypocritical. the fact that you leftards actually believe the dung splattered logic you espouse is a sad comment on the state of the socialist left in America.”
“Religious fascism like the sort you espouse is the latest plague!”
Think Progress » BREAKING: Barber Cancels Ed Schultz’s Debut on Armed Forces Radio
“As for the Conservatives, I also think it’s possible the support they espouse is based on a partisan wedge issue.”
Liberals To Sink Afghan mission? – Update « Unambiguously Ambidextrous
“At one time the Republican party stood for everything that most Americans value, maybe that was before you were born, it’s really sad your too closed minded to understand that what you espouse is unAmerican.”
“In some ways, the research provides scientific evidence of what many self-help books and some religious traditions espouse, which is that being in the "here and now" is critical for happiness, Killingsworth said.”
“But the morality I "espouse", as you put it, is one that is subscribed to by many people who are not Catholics, and how are we to count them?”
“Following that incident, he said that "we really are, despite the sniffing or dismissals of our liberal critics, 'fair and balanced' at Fox News" and said that the news network does not "espouse" a "conservative point of view.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘espouse’.
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Test Prep or Just for fun
Building a list for standardized test prep or just for learning some new words! Please add any words that you feel are important for the SAT/GRE/GMAT etc...
throng, morass, parley, facile, kismet, strife, jetsam, carrion, annex, harbinger, vestige, surreptitious and 575 more...
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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New words
new words or spelling issues
voluble, Metagrobolize, salubrious, calumny, fugacity, withdrawal, bourse, hypertrophy, leitmotif, argot, improvident, damask and 237 more...
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From reading
Collected from reading
venerate, reprobate, reticent, adoration, ethereal, ephemeral, equivocal, contumacious, heinous, solicitous, agnostic, aberration and 335 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
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Philosophic , etymology
every major discipline has uniquely developed esoteric nomenclature to facilitate interdisciplinary dissemination
quale , qualia, elegy, tacet, lexicon, annunciate, caste, eros, contrive, purlicue, irony, venacular, dilapidate and 567 more...
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[Open] Frequentative
“A verb which denotes the frequent occurrence or repetition of an action, as . . . waggle from wag.” — Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia.
Other examples include bobble (bob), bustle (b...dartle, stutter, agitate, dabble, waggle, aid, argue, daunt, expect, excite, espouse, dictate and 77 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1824 more...
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Go over
mollify, obstinate, obviate, occlude, onerous, obscure, paragon, pedantic, perfunctory, placate, placid, prodigal and 364 more...
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Assist
abet, advocate, ancillary, bolster, corroborate, countenance, espouse, munificent, mainstay, proponent, stalwart, sustenance
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SAT words
abase, abate, abet, abject, abjure, abrogate, abscond, abstruse, accolade, accommodating, accost, accretion and 202 more...
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Vocab [General]
No particular specification to this list.
philology, etymology, atavistic, proscribe, inchoate, vulgate, abstruse, agnate, anodize, anthropomorphic, assiduous, augur and 89 more...
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Favorites
disparage, partisan, cupidity, hokum, tussle, odious, dastardly, overture, plane, chronic, peering, peer and 328 more...
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Words
My list of words.
veritable, facetious, nadir, quixotic, apropos, acquiesce, ostensible, insipid, egregious, inveterate, coax, adroit and 409 more...
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Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
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Out of Book Words
commiserate, equanimity, dulcet, cursory, diffident, profligate, egregious, precocious, dissemble, aggregate, efficacy, ingenuous and 100 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for espouse.
Noelle Knight Those people who didn't espouse the more extreme measures of the Fellowship were going to get a real wake-up call tonight. -Charlaine Harris, Living Dead in Dallas Dec 10, 2010
jwjarvis Now, of course, much of what osteopathic medicine has always espoused is rapidly becoming part of all medical training. May 26, 2010