Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To join as spouses by exchanging vows.
- v. To take as a spouse.
- v. To give in marriage.
- v. To perform a marriage ceremony for: The rabbi married the couple.
- v. To obtain by marriage: marry money.
- v. Nautical To join (two ropes) end to end by interweaving their strands.
- v. To unite in a close, usually permanent way: "His material marries the domestic and the exotic” ( Clifton Fadiman).
- v. To take a husband or wife; wed: They married in their twenties.
- v. To combine or blend agreeably: Let the flavors marry overnight.
- interj. Archaic Used as an exclamation of surprise or emphasis.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To unite in wedlock or matrimony; join for life, as a man and a woman, or a man or woman to one of the opposite sex; constitute man and wife, or a husband or wife, according to the laws or customs of a nation.
- To give in marriage; cause to be married.
- To take for husband or wife: as, a man marries a woman, or a woman marries a man.
- Figuratively, to unite intimately or by some close bond of connection.
- Nautical, to fasten together, as two ropes, end to end, in such a way that in unreeving one from a block the other is drawn in.
- Synonyms To wed, espouse.
- To enter into the conjugal state; take a husband or a wife.
- Indeed! forsooth! a term of asseveration, or used to express surprise or other feeling.
- [The word was formerly much used, with various additions, to express surprise, contempt, or satirical encouragement, as in the phrases following.]
Wiktionary
- interj. obsolete indeed!, in truth!; a term of asseveration.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. 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.
- v. 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.
- v. To dispose of in wedlock; to give away as wife.
- v. To take for husband or wife. See the Note below.
- v. Figuratively, to unite in the closest and most endearing relation.
- v. To enter into the conjugal or connubial state; to take a husband or a wife.
- interj. obsolete Indeed! in truth! -- a term of asseveration said to have been derived from the practice of swearing by the Virgin Mary.
WordNet 3.0
- v. take in marriage
- v. perform a marriage ceremony
Etymologies
- Middle English marien, from Anglo-Norman marier, from Latin marītāre ("to wed"), from marītus ("husband, suitor"), of disputed origin. (Perhaps compare Welsh morwyn 'girl', merch 'daughter', Crimean Gothic marzus 'wedding', Ancient Greek meîrax 'boy, girl', Lithuanian martì 'bride', Avestan mairya 'yeoman', Sanskrit máryas 'young man, suitor'.) (Wiktionary)
- Middle English marien, from Old French marier, from Latin marītāre, from marītus, married.Middle English Marie, the Virgin Mary, ultimately from Greek Maria; see Mary1. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“But sharper than all these impressions rang the words of the worldly-wise Higbee: _ "She's hunting night and day for a rich husband; she tries for them as fast as they come; she'd rather marry a sub-treasury -- she'd marry me in a minute -- she'd marry_ YOU; _but if you were broke she'd have about as much use for you ....”
“Also, Prince William should be getting married soon – so now there is no reason at all why he should marry a catholic, and now, with same-sex couples allowed to form civil partnerships, there is no reason why Prince William and Tony Blair, the world’s most eligible and famous Catholic, should not marry*.”
“And when Jesus answered, that it is not lawful to put away a wife and to marry another, except on account of whoredom, they replied that nevertheless Moses commanded to give a bill of divorce and to put her away; and the disciples said, If the case of a man with his wife be so it is not expedient to marry_, "xix.”
“It is enough that “my lud” has a handle to his name, and Murray Hill shoddyocracy will wine and dine and toady him, and perhaps for his title marry him to some sweet, pure and good American girl, whose life hereafter will be a purgatory to herself and a mutual misery to both.”
“It is enough that "my lud" has a handle to his name, and Murray Hill shoddyocracy will wine and dine and toady him, and perhaps for his title marry him to some sweet, pure and good American girl, whose life hereafter will be a purgatory to herself and a mutual misery to both.”
“Since you've previously mentioned that you never attend this kind of thing, are you having a striper captain marry you?”
“Re: Hector, a Church that allows open homosexuals not only to be Bishops but to marry is hardly Christian.”
“Hector, a Church that allows open homosexuals not only to be Bishops but to marry is hardly Christian.”
“Anyone that says they should be forbidden to marry is judging them and recommending discriminating against them.”
“I'm not one who thinks waiting to marry is causing a problem here.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘marry’.
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phrontistery - m
from phrontistery.info
malm, marc, marl, maya, mazy, meet, mel, mew, mewling, mho, miasma, micaceous and 898 more...
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AFCO - fundamental rights
as enshrined in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights
academic freedom, access, asylum, bargaining, citizen, cloning, cohesion, collective agreement, collective bargai..., confidentiality, conflict of interest, constraint and 357 more...
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Figuratively
Words with definitions containing "figuratively."
spore, plunge, fulminate, rasp, hinge, niche, breathe, approach, hammer, rain, butcher, dazzle and 132 more...
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LIBE - rights
security, property, paid leave, information, petition, establishment, education, assembly, worship, work, vote, safety and 67 more...
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Mollusque's miscellany
A mixture of words that I like or have commented on, along with ones parked here so they'd be listed somewhere or remind me of lists I want to make.
oranger, monographer, preoccupied, bu, bobization, coinventor, tetrapyloctomy, borgmannian, suspercollate, manhug, mancrush, obituarist and 604 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
contemplate, container, consumer, consultant, consensus, conscious, conscience, connection, confusion, confront, conflict, confident and 4334 more...
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OED word of the Day
Just like it says
majority, plasm, apal, statin, legerdemain, leap year, daffodil, maternal, key worker, jojoba, skelf, pose and 101 more...
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near and dear words
epi- opi- where it is at; also connected virtually or otherwise
epitome, epiphany, episcopal, opisthobranch, opisthognathous, oblast, duopsony, opsonin, epistemolgy, epistle, epidote, epidermis and 44 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for marry.

travismcdermott a1325 11000 Virgins (Corpus Cambr.) 14 in C. D'Evelyn & A. J. Mill S. Eng. Legendary (1956) 443 He lete hure marie to is sone that was is eir. Jul 10, 2008
mollusque To marry well is half of life.
--Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, 1968, The First Circle May 17, 2008
pterodactyl For some people, Mary, merry, and marry all sound different. For others, they sound the same. You can see a map of this phenomenon (in the US) here. Apr 10, 2008