wive
Americanverb (used without object)
verb (used with object)
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to take as wife; marry.
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to provide with a wife.
verb
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to marry (a woman)
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(tr) to supply with a wife
Etymology
Origin of wive
before 900; Middle English wiven, Old English wīfian, derivative of wīf; see wife
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The men of Padua, where Fred Graham’s Petruchio has “come to wive it wealthily,” sport brightly hued tights, exaggerated codpieces and lavishly plumed caps.
From New York Times ● May 30, 2015
But when I came, alas! to wive, With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,By swaggering could I never thrive, For the rain it raineth every day.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 1, 2013
What can books of men that wive In a dragon-guarded land, Paintings of the dolphin-drawn Sea-nymphs in their pearly waggons Do, but awake a hope to live That had gone With the dragons?
From Responsibilities and other poems by W. B. (William Butler) Yeats
Therefore, as the old saying is,— Farmer, that thy wife may thrive, Let not burr and burdock wive; And if thou wouldst keep thy son, See that bine and gith have none.
From Lorna Doone; a Romance of Exmoor by R. D. (Richard Doddridge) Blackmore
He that ever hopes to thrive Must begin by thirty-five; And all, who wisely wish to wive, Must look on Thrale at thirty-five.
From Dr. Johnson's Works: Life, Poems, and Tales, Volume 1 The Works of Samuel Johnson, Ll.D., in Nine Volumes by Samuel Johnson
Ono wived by letting husbands go; she mothered her daughter by letting her go.
From New York Times ● Oct. 21, 2012
Scoffers at U. S. learning might with a modicum of justice point out that Dr. Carrel is French-born, educated and wived, that Dr. Landsteiner is Austrian-born, educated and wived.
From Time Magazine Archive
From his mother the Evening Post learned their names, and that Soso has twice wived.
From Time Magazine Archive
I served through the war that made Europe free; I wived me in peace-year.
From Wessex Poems and Other Verses by Thomas Hardy
And let it have survived Their conflict, comes the peace between the pair, Unknown to thousands husbanded and wived: Unknown to Passion, generous for prey: Unknown to Love, too blissful in a truce.
From Poems — Volume 3 by George Meredith
Unable to get along on his $150,000 yearly income from a trust fund, Dodge managed to borrow at least $10 million from his mother, Mrs. Anna Thomson Dodge, 99, to bankroll his wining and wiving.
From Time Magazine Archive
Fighting, writing, digging, rigging, Hiving, wiving, nursing, versing.
From Time Magazine Archive
Helen Crawford is bespoke for young Farquharson of Blair, and if you have any hopes o' wiving in my house—" "Crawford, thank you for your warning, but I have no thoughts of marrying any one.
From Scottish sketches by Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr
He often told himself that "hanging and wiving go by destiny."
From The Song of the Lark by Willa Sibert Cather
In wiving and thriving men should take counsel of all the world.
From Dictionary of English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases With a Copious Index of Principal Words by Thomas Preston
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
