marriage

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The legal union of a man and woman as husband and wife.
2. n. The state of being married; wedlock.
3. n. A common-law marriage.
4. n. A union between two persons having the customary but usually not the legal force of marriage: a same-sex marriage.
5. n. A wedding.
6. n. A close union: "the most successful marriage of beauty and blood in mainstream comics” ( Lloyd Rose).
7. n. Games The combination of the king and queen of the same suit, as in pinochle.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The legal union of a man with a woman for life; the state or condition of being married; the legal relation of spouses to each other; wedlock. In this sense marriage is a status or condition which, though originating in a contract, is not capable of being terminated by the parties' rescission of the contract, because the interests of the state and of children require the affixing of certain permanent duties and obligations upon the parties.
2. n. The formal declaration or contract by which act a man and a woman join in wedlock. In this sense marriage is a civil contract, implying the free and intelligent mutual consent of competent persons to take each other, as a present act, as husband and wife; and according to the modern and most prevalent view no formalities other than such as the law of the jurisdiction may expressly impose are necessary to prevent either from subsequently repudiating the other or denying the legitimacy of their issue. The formalities provided for by the law of some of the United States are optional, being intended chiefly to enable the parties to preserve authentic evidence of the contract. When a man and a woman live and cohabit together, and conduct themselves as man and wife in the society and neighborhood of which they are members, till the belief and reputation that they are married become general, their marriage is presumed, without other evidence, for purposes of enforcing rights and liabilities of third persons.
3. n. The celebration of a marriage; a wedding.
4. n. A marriage vow or contract.
5. n. Intimate union; a joining as if in marriage. The figure is used in the Bible to represent the close union of God or Christ and the chosen people or church. See Isa. liv. 5; Hos. ii. 19, 20.
6. n. In various card-games, as bezique, the possession in one hand of the king and queen.
7. n. A marriage itself.
8. n. Same as marriage articles.

Wiktionary

1. n. The state of being married.
2. n. The union of two people, to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life.
3. n. A wedding.
4. n. A close union.
5. n. A joining of two parts.
6. n. A king and a queen as a starting hand in Texas hold 'em.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The act of marrying, or the state of being married; legal union of a man and a woman for life, as husband and wife; wedlock; matrimony.
2. n. The marriage vow or contract.
3. n. A feast made on the occasion of a marriage.
4. n. Any intimate or close union.
5. n. In pinochle, bézique, and similar games at cards, the combination of a king and queen of the same suit. If of the trump suit, it is called a royal marriage.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. the act of marrying; the nuptial ceremony
2. n. two people who are married to each other
3. n. a close and intimate union
4. n. the state of being a married couple voluntarily joined for life (or until divorce)