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  1. espouse love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. v. To take in marriage; marry.
  2. v. To give (a woman) in marriage.
  3. v. To give one's loyalty or support to (a cause, for example); adopt.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A spouse.
  2. To promise, engage, or bestow in marriage; betroth.
  3. To take in marriage; marry; wed.
  4. 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.
  5. To pledge; commit; engage.

Wiktionary

  1. v. transitive To become/get married to.
  2. v. transitive To accept, support, or take on as one’s own (an idea or a cause).

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. v. To betroth; to promise in marriage; to give as spouse.
  2. v. To take as spouse; to take to wife; to marry.
  3. 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

  1. v. take in marriage
  2. v. choose and follow; as of theories, ideas, policies, strategies or plans
  3. v. take up the cause, ideology, practice, method, of someone and use it as one's own

Etymologies

  1. 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)
  2. 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

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  • 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

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‘espouse’ has been looked up 3853 times, loved by 10 people, added to 63 lists, commented on 2 times, and has a Scrabble score of 9.