marriage

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

Legal union

Nouns

1. marriage, matrimony, wedlock, union; intermarriage, nuptial tie, married state, bed and board, cohabitation, POSSLQ (person of the opposite sex sharing living quarters), wedded bliss; mixed marriage; open marriage, endogamy, exogamy; engagement; criminal conversation or correspondence. Slang, ball and chain, love in a cottage, light housekeeping. See junction, unity, combination.

2. (marriage proceedings) engagement, betrothal, understanding, proposal; wedding, nuptials, Hymen, espousal; leading to the altar; epithalamium; temple of Hymen; honeymoon; sea of matrimony.

3. (people)

a. fiancé[e], betrothed; bride, [bride]groom; bridesmaid, maid or matron of honor, best man, usher; spouse, mate, partner, significant other, live-in lover, housemate, helpmate, helpmeet. Slang, man-eater, mantrap, pillow-mate.

b. married man, Benedict, husband, man, good provider, consort, squaw-man, domestic partner. Slang, main on the hitch.

c. married woman, bride, wife, concubine, frau, goodwife, rib, better half, squaw, lady, matron, domestic partner. Slang, bachelor's wife, mouse, old saw, warden, ball and chain; bitch's blind, fishwife.

d. [married] couple, pair, husband and wife, bride and groom, newlyweds; Darby and Joan, Mr. and Mrs., lovebirds, loving couple; May and January; dual or double income no children, DINK. Slang, salt-and-pepper.

e. matchmaker, marriage broker. Informal, old man or woman, little woman.

f. cradle snatcher.

4. (marriage law) monogamy, bigamy, polygamy, polygyny, polyandry, Mormonism; morganatic marriage, common-law marriage, concubinage. Informal, light housekeeping.

Verbs

1. marry, wive, take a wife; be married, be spliced; wed, espouse; rob the cradle; give away, give in marriage. Slang, get hitched, walk down the aisle, tie the knot.

4. marry, join, couple, unite, make one, tie the nuptial knot; join or unite in marriage; elope; live together, cohabit; bundle. Slang, shack up with, play house.

5. propose; betroth, affiance, plight troth; bespeak; pin; match; publish banns.

Adjectives

1. matrimonial, marital, conjugal, connubial; wedded, nuptial, hymeneal, spousal, bridal; engaged, betrothed, affianced; marriageable, nubile, available, eligible. Slang, spliced. See age.

2. living together. Slang, shacked up.

Phrases — marry in haste, repent at leasure; marriages are made in heaven; always a bridesmaid, never a bride; a deaf husband and a blind wife are always a happy couple; to marry is to learn to be alone; marriage is a lottery.

Quotations — A man in love is incomplete until he has married. Then he's finished (Zsa Zsa Gabor), I married beneath me, all women do (Nancy As-tor), A husband is what is left of a lover after the nerve has been extracted (Helen Rowland), I have always thought that every woman should marry, and no man (Benjamin Disraeli), It is better to marry than to burn (Bible), In married life, three is company and two is none (Oscar Wilde), Two can live cheaper than one (Ring Lardner), The heart of marriage is memories (Bill Cosby), When a marriage has equal partners, then I fear not (Aeschylus), Marriage is a desperate thing (John Selden), Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards (Benjamin Franklin), Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage (Shakespeare).

Antonyms, see celibacy, divorce.

II

(Roget's IV) n.

1. [The act of marrying]

Syn. wedding, espousal, spousal, nuptials, pledging, mating; see also ceremony 2 , sacrament .

Ant. divorce*, separation, annulment.

2. [The state following marriage]

Syn. matrimony, conjugality, nuptial tie, nuptial knot, union, match, connubiality, wedlock, wedded state, wedded bliss, holy matrimony.

Ant. chastity*, bachelorhood, spinsterhood.

3. [A close union]

Syn. intimacy, compatibility, comradeship, alliance; see friendship 1 .

III

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus) n.

union, wedding, matrimony, coupling, wedlock, tie, bond, nuptials, *wedded bliss, *tying the knot, merger. ''An armed alliance against the outside world.''—Gilbert Keith Chesterson. ''The high sea for which no compass has yet been invented.''—Heinrich Heine. ''Fever in reverse: it starts with heat and ends with cold.''—German proverb. ''A field of battle, not a bed of roses.''—Robert Louis Stevenson.

WORD FIND

• after death of first spouse: digamy

• broker, Jewish: schatchen

• divorce: dissolution

• estrangement: alienation of affections

• failing: *on the rocks

• forced, due to sexual misconduct: *shotgun wedding

• hater of: misogamist

• hatred of: misogamy

• interracial: miscegenation, mixed marriage

• invalidation of: annulment

• long-term cohabitation without benefit of wedding: common-law marriage

• loveless couple joined for benefits other than affection: marriage of convenience

• man uninterested in: confirmed bachelor

• man who has sexually unfaithful wife: cuckold

• married to more than one spouse: bigamy, polygamy

• married to one spouse: monogamy, monogyny, monandry

• outside the bonds of marriage: extramarital

• property brought into by woman: dowry

• seventh-year temptation: *seven-year itch

• unfaithfulness in: infidelity

• vow: troth

• with others: open marriage

see divorce, wedding

IV

(Roget's Thesaurus II) noun 1. The state of being united as husband and wife: conjugality, connubiality, matrimony, wedlock. See MARRIAGE. 2. The act or ceremony by which two people become husband and wife: bridal, espousal, nuptial (often used in plural), spousal (often used in plural), wedding. See MARRIAGE.