Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • 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.]
  • 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.

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

  • intransitive verb To enter into the conjugal or connubial state; to take a husband or a wife.
  • intransitive verb [Colloq.] a man disposed to marry.
  • interjection obsolete Indeed! in truth! -- a term of asseveration said to have been derived from the practice of swearing by the Virgin Mary.
  • transitive verb 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.
  • transitive verb 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.
  • transitive verb To dispose of in wedlock; to give away as wife.
  • transitive verb To take for husband or wife. See the Note below.
  • transitive verb Figuratively, to unite in the closest and most endearing relation.
  • transitive verb (Naut.) To join two ropes end to end so that both will pass through a block.

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

  • interjection obsolete indeed!, in truth!; a term of asseveration.

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

  • verb take in marriage
  • verb perform a marriage ceremony

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English Marie, referring to Mary, the Virgin Mary. Mid-14th century.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

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'.)

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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 ...."

    The Spenders A Tale of the Third Generation Harry Leon Wilson 1903

  • 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*.

    Co-incidence? I think not David Hadley 2009

  • 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*.

    Archive 2009-03-01 David Hadley 2009

  • 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.

    The Delights of Wisdom Pertaining to Conjugial Love Emanuel Swedenborg 1730

  • 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.

    Black and White T. Thomas Fortune 2007

  • 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.

    Black and White T. Thomas Fortune 2007

  • 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.

    Black and White T. Thomas Fortune 2007

  • 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.

    Black and White T. Thomas Fortune 2007

  • 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.

    Black and White T. Thomas Fortune 2007

  • 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.

    Black and White Land, Labor, and Politics in the South Timothy Thomas Fortune 1892

Comments

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  • 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.

    April 10, 2008

  • To marry well is half of life.

    --Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, 1968, The First Circle

    May 17, 2008

  • 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.

    July 10, 2008