marriage

6 definitions found

marriage - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Marriage \Mar"riage\, n. [OE. mariage, F. mariage. See Marry,
     v. t.]
     1. 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.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Marriage is honorable in all.         --Heb. xiii.
                                                    4.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. The marriage vow or contract. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. A feast made on the occasion of a marriage.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king
              which made a marriage for his son.    --Matt. xxii.
                                                    2.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. Any intimate or close union.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     5. In pinochle, b['e]zique, 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.
        [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
  
     Marriage brokage.
        (a) The business of bringing about marriages.
        (b) The payment made or demanded for the procurement of a
            marriage.
  
     Marriage favors, knots of white ribbons, or bunches of
        white flowers, worn at weddings.
  
     Marriage settlement (Law), a settlement of property in
        view, and in consideration, of marriage.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Syn: Matrimony; wedlock; wedding; nuptials.
  
     Usage: Marriage, Matrimony, Wedlock. Marriage is
            properly the act which unites the two parties, and
            matrimony the state into which they enter. Marriage
            is, however, often used for the state as well as the
            act. Wedlock is the old Anglo-Saxon term for
            matrimony.
            [1913 Webster]

marriage - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  marriage
      n 1: the state of being a married couple voluntarily joined for
           life (or until divorce); "a long and happy marriage"; "God
           bless this union" [syn: marriage, matrimony, union,
           spousal relationship, wedlock]
      2: two people who are married to each other; "his second
         marriage was happier than the first"; "a married couple
         without love" [syn: marriage, married couple, man and   wife
         ]
      3: the act of marrying; the nuptial ceremony; "their marriage
         was conducted in the chapel" [syn: marriage, wedding,
         marriage ceremony]
      4: a close and intimate union; "the marriage of music and
         dance"; "a marriage of ideas"

marriage - Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary :

  Marriage
  was instituted in Paradise when man was in innocence (Gen.
  2:18-24). Here we have its original charter, which was confirmed
  by our Lord, as the basis on which all regulations are to be
  framed (Matt. 19:4, 5). It is evident that monogamy was the
  original law of marriage (Matt. 19:5; 1 Cor. 6:16). This law was
  violated in after times, when corrupt usages began to be
  introduced (Gen. 4:19; 6:2). We meet with the prevalence of
  polygamy and concubinage in the patriarchal age (Gen. 16:1-4;
  22:21-24; 28:8, 9; 29:23-30, etc.). Polygamy was acknowledged in
  the Mosaic law and made the basis of legislation, and continued
  to be practised all down through the period of Jewish histroy to
  the Captivity, after which there is no instance of it on record.
  
    It seems to have been the practice from the beginning for
  fathers to select wives for their sons (Gen. 24:3; 38:6).
  Sometimes also proposals were initiated by the father of the
  maiden (Ex. 2:21). The brothers of the maiden were also
  sometimes consulted (Gen. 24:51; 34:11), but her own consent was
  not required. The young man was bound to give a price to the
  father of the maiden (31:15; 34:12; Ex. 22:16, 17; 1 Sam. 18:23,
  25; Ruth 4:10; Hos. 3:2) On these patriarchal customs the Mosaic
  law made no change.
  
    In the pre-Mosaic times, when the proposals were accepted and
  the marriage price given, the bridegroom could come at once and
  take away his bride to his own house (Gen. 24:63-67). But in
  general the marriage was celebrated by a feast in the house of
  the bride's parents, to which all friends were invited (29:22,
  27); and on the day of the marriage the bride, concealed under a
  thick veil, was conducted to her future husband's home.
  
    Our Lord corrected many false notions then existing on the
  subject of marriage (Matt. 22:23-30), and placed it as a divine
  institution on the highest grounds. The apostles state clearly
  and enforce the nuptial duties of husband and wife (Eph.
  5:22-33; Col. 3:18, 19; 1 Pet. 3:1-7). Marriage is said to be
  "honourable" (Heb. 13:4), and the prohibition of it is noted as
  one of the marks of degenerate times (1 Tim. 4:3).
  
    The marriage relation is used to represent the union between
  God and his people (Isa. 54:5; Jer. 3:1-14; Hos. 2:9, 20). In
  the New Testament the same figure is employed in representing
  the love of Christ to his saints (Eph. 5:25-27). The Church of
  the redeemed is the "Bride, the Lamb's wife" (Rev. 19:7-9).

marriage - Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) :

  MARRIAGE. A contract made in due form of law, by which a free man and a free 
  woman reciprocally engage to live with each other during their joint lives, 
  in the union which ought to exist between husband and wife. By the terms 
  freeman and freewoman in this definition are meant, not only that they are 
  free and not slaves, but also that they are clear of all bars to a lawful 
  marriage. Dig. 23, 2, 1; Ayl. Parer. 359; Stair, Inst. tit. 4, s. 1; 
  Shelford on Mar. and Div. c. 1, s. 1. 
       2. To make a valid marriage, the parties must be willing to contract, 
  Able to contract, and have actually contracted. 
       3.-1. They must be willing to contract. Those persons, therefore, who 
  have no legal capacity in point of intellect, to make a contract, cannot 
  legally marry, as idiots, lunatics, and infant; males under the age of 
  fourteen, and females under the age of twelve, and when minors over those 
  ages marry, they must have the consent of their parents or guardians. 
       4. There is no will when the person is mistaken in the party whom he 
  intended to marry; as, if Peter intending to marry Maria, through error or 
  mistake of person, in fact marries Eliza; but an error in the fortune, as if 
  a man marries a woman whom he believes to be rich, and he finds her to be 
  poor; or in the quality, as if he marry a woman whom he took to be chaste, 
  and whom he finds of an opposite character, this does not invalidate the 
  marriage, because in these cases the error is only of some quality or 
  accident, and not in the person. Poynt. on Marr. and Div. ch. 9. 
       5. When the marriage is obtained by force or fraud, it is clear that 
  there is no consent; it is, therefore, void ab initio, and may be treated as 
  null by every court in which its validity may incidentally be called in 
  question. 2 Kent, Com. 66; Shelf. on Marr. and Div. 199; 2 Hagg. Cons. R. 
  246; 5 Paige, 43. 
       6.-2. Generally, all persons who are of sound mind, and have arrived 
  to years of maturity, are able to contract marriage. To this general rule, 
  however, there are many exceptions, among which the following may be 
  enumerated. 
       7.-1. The previous marriage of the party to another person who is 
  still living. 
       8.-2. Consanguinity, or affinity between the parties within the 
  prohibited degree. It seems that persons in the descending or ascending 
  line, however remote from each other, cannot lawfully marry; such marriages 
  are against nature; but when we come to consider collaterals, it is not so 
  easy to fix the forbidden degrees, by clear and established principles. 
  Vaugh. 206; S. C. 2 Vent. 9. In several of the United States, marriages 
  within the limited degrees are made void by statute. 2 Kent, Com. 79; Vide 
  Poynt. on Marr. and Div. ch. 7. 
       9.-3. Impotency, (q.v.) which must have existed at the time of the 
  marriage, and be incurable. 2 Phillim. Rep. 10; 2 Hagg. Rep. 832. 
      10.-4. Adultery. By statutory provision in Pennsylvania, when a person 
  is convicted of adultery with another person, or is divorced from her 
  husband, or his wife, he or she cannot afterwards marry the partner of his 
  or her guilt. This provision is copied from the civil law. Poth. Contr. de 
  Mariage, part 3, c. 3, art. 7. And the same provision exists in the French 
  code civil, art. 298. See 1 Toull. n. 555. 
      11.-3. The parties must not only be willing and able, but must have 
  actually contracted in due form of law. 
      12. The common law requires no particular ceremony to the valid 
  celebration of marriage. The consent of the parties is all that is 
  necessary, and as marriage is said to be a contract jure gentium, that 
  consent is all that is needful by natural or public law. If the contract be 
  made per verba de presenti, or if made per verba de futuro, and followed by 
  consummation, it amounts to a valid marriage, and which the parties cannot 
  dissolve, if otherwise competent; it is not necessary that a clergyman 
  should be present to give validity to the marriage; the consent of the 
  parties may be declared before a magistrate, or simply before witnesses; or 
  subsequently confessed or acknowledged, or the marriage may even be inferred 
  from continual cohabitation, and reputation as husband and wife, except in 
  cases of civil actions for adultery, or public prosecutions for bigamy. 1 
  Silk. 119; 4 Burr. 2057; Dougl. 171; Burr. Settl. Cas. 509; 1 Dow, 148; 2 
  Dow, 482; 4 John. 2; 18 John. R. 346; 6 Binn, 405; 1 Penn. R. 452; 2 Watts, 
  R. 9. But a promise to marry at a future time, cannot, by any process of 
  law, be converted into a marriage, though the breach of such promise will be 
  the foundation of an action for damages. 
      13. In some of the states, statutory regulations have been made on this 
  subject. In Maine and Massachusetts, the marriage must be made in the 
  presence, and with the assent of a magistrate, or a stated or ordained 
  minister of the gospel. 7 Mass. Rep. 48; 2 Greenl. Rep. 102. The statute of 
  Connecticut on this subject, requires the marriage to be celebrated by a 
  clergyman or magistrate, and requires the previous publication of the 
  intention of marriage, and the consent of parents; it inflicts a penalty on 
  those who disobey its regulations. The marriage, however, would probably be 
  considered valid, although the regulations of the statutes had not been 
  observed. Reeve's Dom. Rel. 196, 200, 290. The rule in Pennsylvania is, that 
  the marriage is valid, although the directions of the statute have not been 
  observed. 2 Watts, Rep. 9; 1 How. S. C. R. 219. The same rule probably 
  obtains in New Jersey; 2 Halsted, 138; New Hampshire; 2 N. H. Rep. 268; and 
  Kentucky. 3 Marsh. R. 370. In Louisiana, a license must be obtained from the 
  parish judge of the parish in which at least one of the parties is 
  domiciliated, and the marriage must be celebrated before a priest or 
  minister of a religious sect, or an authorized justice of the peace; it must 
  be celebrated in the presence of three witnesses of full age, and an act 
  must be made of the celebration, signed by the person who celebrated the 
  marriage, by the parties and the witnesses. Code, art. 101 to 107. The 89th 
  article of the Code declares, that such marriages only are recognized by 
  law, as are contracted and solemnized according to the rules which it 
  prescribes. But the Code does not declare null a marriage not preceded by a 
  license, and not evidenced by an act signed by a certain number of witnesses 
  and the parties, nor does it make such an act exclusive evidence of the 
  marriage. The laws relating to forms and ceremonies are directory to those 
  who are authorized to celebrate marriage. 6 L. R. 470. 
      14. A marriage made in a foreign country, if good there, would, in 
  general, be held good in this country, unless when it would work injustice, 
  or be contra bonos mores, or be repugnant to the settled principles and 
  policy of our laws. Story, Confl. of Laws, Sec. 87; Shelf. on M. & D. 140; 1 
  Bland. 188; 2 Bland. 485; 3 John. Ch. R. 190; 8 Ala. R. 48. 
      15. Marriage is a contract intended in its origin to endure till the 
  death of one of the contracting parties. It is dissolved by death or 
  divorce. 
      16. In some cases, as in prosecutions for bigamy, by the common law, an 
  actual marriage must be proved in order to convict the accused. See 6 Conn. 
  R. 446. This rule is much qualified. See Bigamy. 
      17. But for many purposes it may be proved by circumstances; for 
  example, cohabitation; acknowledgment by the parties themselves that they 
  were married; their reception as such by their friends and relations; their 
  correspondence, on being casually separated, addressing each other as man 
  and wife; 2 Bl. R. 899; declaring, deliberately, that the marriage took 
  place in a foreign country; 2 Moo. & R. 503; describing their children, in 
  parish registers of baptism, as their legitimate offspring; 2 Str. 1073; 8 
  Ves. 417; or when the parties pass for husband and wife by common 
  reputation. 1 Bl. R. 639; S. C. 4 Burr. 2057; Dougl. 174; Cowp. 594; 3 
  Swans. R. 400; 8 S. & R. 159; 2 Hayw. R. 3; 1 Taylor, R. 121; 1 H. & McH. 
  152; 2 N. & McC. 114; 5 Day, R. 290; 4 R. & M. 507; 9 Mass. R. 414; 4 John. 
  52; 18 John. 346. After their death, the presumption is generally 
  conclusive. Cowp. 591; 6 T. R. 330. 
      18. The civil effects of marriage are the following: 1. It confirms all 
  matrimonial agreements between the parties. 
      19.-2. It vests in the husband all the personal property of the wife, 
  that which is in possession absolutely, and choses in action, upon the 
  condition that he shall reduce them to possession; it also vests in the 
  husband right to manage the real estate of the wife, and enjoy the profits 
  arising from it during their joint lives, and after her death, an estate by 
  the curtesy when a child has been born. It vests in the wife after the 
  husband's death, an estate in dower in the husband's lands, and a right to a 
  certain part of his personal estate, when he dies intestate. In some states, 
  the wife now retains her separate property by statute. 
      20.-3. It creates the civil affinity which each contracts towards the 
  relations of the other. 
      21.-4. It gives the husband marital authority over the person of his 
  wife. 
      22.-5. The wife acquires thereby the name of her husband, as they are 
  considered as but one, of which he is the head: erunt duo in carne una. 
      23.-6. In general, the wife follows the condition of her husband. 
      24.-7. The wife, on her marriage, loses her domicil and gains that of 
  her husband. 
      25.-8. One of the effects of marriage is to give paternal power over 
  the issue. 
      26.-9. The children acquire the domicil of their father.
      27.-10. It gives to the children who are the fruits of the marriage, 
  the rights of kindred not only with the father and mother, but all their 
  kin. 
      28.-11. It makes all the issue legitimate. 
       Vide, generally, 1 Bl. Com. 433; 15 Vin. Ab. 252; Bac. Ab. h.t.; Com. 
  Dig. Baron and Feme, B; Id. Appx. b. t.; 2 Sell. Pr. 194; Ayl. Parergon, 
  359; 1 Bro. Civ. Law, 94; Rutherf. Inst. 162; 2 Supp. to Ves. jr. 334; Roper 
  on Husband & Wife; Poynter on Marriage and Divorce; Merl. Repert. h.t.; 
  Pothier, Traite du Contrat de Marriage; Toullier, h.t.; Chit. Pract. Index, 
  h.t.; Dane's Ab. Index, h.t., Burge on the Confl. of Laws, Index, h.t.; 
  Bouv. Inst. Index, h.t. 
  
  

  MARRIAGE, PROMISE OF. A promise of marriage is a contract entered into 
  between a man and woman that they will marry each other. 
       2. When the promise is made between persons competent to contract 
  matrimony, an action lies for a breach of it. Vide Promise of Marriage. 
  
  

marriage - Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 :

  141 Moby Thesaurus words for "marriage":
     Anschluss, Gretna Green wedding, addition, affiliation,
     agglomeration, agglutination, aggregation, agreement, alliance,
     amalgamation, articulation, assimilation, association, banns,
     blend, blending, bond, bracketing, bridal, bridal suite,
     bridechamber, cabal, carnality, cartel, centralization, chuppah,
     church wedding, civil ceremony, civil wedding, clustering,
     coalescence, coalition, coldness, combination, combine, combo,
     communication, composition, concatenation, concourse, concurrence,
     confederacy, confederation, confluence, congeries, conglomeration,
     conjugation, conjunction, connection, consolidation, conspiracy,
     convergence, copulation, coupling, ecumenism, elopement,
     embodiment, encompassment, enosis, epithalamium, espousals,
     espousement, federalization, federation, flesh, fleshliness,
     forced marriage, frigidity, fusion, gathering, honeymoon, hookup,
     hymen, hymeneal, hymeneal rites, impotence, inclusion,
     incorporation, integration, intercommunication, intercourse,
     interlinking, joinder, joining, jointure, junction, junta,
     knotting, league, liaison, libido, linkage, linking, love,
     lovemaking, match, matrimony, meeting, meld, melding, merger,
     merging, nuptial apartment, nuptial mass, nuptial song, nuptials,
     package, package deal, pairing, potency, prothalamium,
     saffron veil, sensuality, sex drive, sexiness, sexual instinct,
     sexual urge, sexualism, sexuality, shotgun wedding, solidification,
     splice, spousal, spousals, symbiosis, syncretism, syndication,
     syneresis, synthesis, tie, tie-in, tie-up, unification, union,
     voluptuousness, wedding, wedding canopy, wedding song,
     wedding veil, wedlock, yoking