Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The state of being married; matrimony.
  • idiom (out of wedlock) Of parents not legally married to each other.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To unite in marriage; marry.
  • noun Marriage; matrimony; the married state; the vows and sacrament of marriage. Sometimes used attributively.
  • noun A wife.
  • noun Synonyms Matrimony, Wedding, etc. See marriage.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The ceremony, or the state, of marriage; matrimony.
  • noun obsolete A wife; a married woman.
  • transitive verb rare To marry; to unite in marriage; to wed.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The state of being married; matrimony.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the state of being a married couple voluntarily joined for life (or until divorce)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English wedlocke, from Old English wedlāc : wedd, pledge + -lāc, n. suff. expressing activity.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English wedlok, wedlocke ("wedlock, marriage, matrimony"), from Old English wedlāc ("marriage vow, pledge, plighted troth, wedlock"), from wedd ("pledge") + -lāc, suffix denoting activity or process, equivalent to wed +‎ -lock.

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Examples

Comments

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  • The only survivor in Modern English of the Old English action noun suffix -lác. This may have been a noun "play" and originated in compounds meaning "sword-play" for "battle".

    June 1, 2009

  • lark and knowledge are the other two common remnants of this OE substantival word suffix

    June 1, 2009

  • Possible in the case of knowledge, with its completely mysterious second element—I suppose the older -leche could come from palatalization of a Northern form -leik of the -lock suffix, though the OED does not raise this possibility.

    Shurely shome mishtake with lark, which though equally mysterious does not admit of anything like *-lak. The v in OE láferce might have been Norse influence; other old forms include OE láwerce, OHG lêrahha, ON lǽvirke, and this suffix won't fit in there.

    The 'Rohirric' word dwimmerlaik in Tolkien's works is a use of a genuine (extinct) English word with the suffix.

    June 1, 2009

  • frolic(h)'s suffix surely must be related to words of this suffix.

    June 3, 2009