affiance
Americanverb (used with object)
noun
-
a pledging of faith, as a marriage contract.
-
trust; confidence; reliance.
verb
noun
Etymology
Origin of affiance
1300–50; Middle English < Middle French afiance, equivalent to afi ( er ) to pledge faith, declare on oath, betroth (< Medieval Latin affīdāre, equivalent to ad- ad- + *fīdāre, for Latin fīdere to trust; see confide) + -ance -ance
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:
Jealousy and distrust are the bane of friendship, whose essence is esteem and affiance.
From Letters on the Improvement of the Mind, Addressed to a Lady by Hester Chapone
Thus he pledged his faith, and the Duke accepted his affiance.
From French Mediaeval Romances from the Lays of Marie de France by Marie de France
You set affiance on him, I know, and I the like: and if he be not misturned, methinks he may yet prove a good servant.
From The White Rose of Langley A Story of the Olden Time by Emily Sarah Holt
They tried to engage James to affiance Elizabeth to the Duke of Savoy's son, the Prince of Piedmont, and Henry to the Duke's daughter.
From Sir Walter Ralegh A Biography by W. (William) Stebbing
For in him is all mine affiance; We have in the world so many a day Be on good friends in sport and play.
From "Everyman," with other interludes, including eight miracle plays by Ernest Rhys
The affianced Earhart and the married George Palmer Putnam met in his Manhattan office in the spring of 1928.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 11, 2025
However, usually the affianced couple can stick it out long enough to break up in private once the show is completely done.
From Salon ● Sep. 4, 2024
The affianced co-hosts of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” it turns out, have also been named visiting fellows to Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 13, 2017
If this woman decides to yell at you for becoming affianced, that’s a real opportunity for her fiancé to lovingly encourage her to amend her bad behavior.
From Slate ● Jun. 12, 2017
Nevertheless, he had met his cousin's affianced wife on several occasions, for Hedwig now frequently came over to Ettersberg with her father.
From Fickle Fortune by Elisabeth Burstenbinder (AKA E. Werner)
Sydney tries to escape the pity of ever-present hotel guests by affiancing herself to a sanguine, vacationing clergyman aged 40, but the clergyman is quickly followed by an anticlimax.
From Time Magazine Archive
The famous affiancing in New York of a coachman with the daughter of the millionaire who employed him did not turn out well.
From Around The Tea-Table by T. De Witt (Thomas De Witt) Talmage
Then they feasted, with unearthly servitors to attend them, and did all else appropriate to an affiancing of deities.
From Figures of Earth by James Branch Cabell
The king survived these transactions two years; but nothing memorable occurs in the remaining part of his reign, except his affiancing his second daughter, Mary, to the young archduke Charles, son of Philip of Castile.
From The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part C. From Henry VII. to Mary by David Hume
You know, to me, Clara, plighted faith, the affiancing of two lovers, is a piece of religion.
From The Egoist by George Meredith
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.
