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:
He chose her in a love, whose affiance was sanctioned in heaven; and after three years' absence in the Lake Country, he and Julia met again at his father's house.
From Summerfield or, Life on a Farm by Day Kellogg Lee
The choice rested with the fathers, who were accustomed to affiance their sons early, indeed when mere boys.
From The Women of the Caesars by Guglielmo Ferrero
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
For nothing that man can give would I have you doubt my faith and affiance.
From French Mediaeval Romances from the Lays of Marie de France by Marie de France
And this affiance was in its being moral.
From Abraham Lincoln's Cardinal Traits; A Study in Ethics, with an Epilogue Addressed to Theologians by Clark S. Beardslee
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
Machine Gun Kelly proposed to Fox in January 2022, after which the affianced couple allegedly drank each other’s blood.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 21, 2023
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
Being gay is a great thing to be ostentatious about, although using the correct pronouns to refer to your affianced hardly reaches “ostentatious” levels, in my book.
From Slate ● Jan. 4, 2017
I had been aware, of course, that Julian was affianced to a certain Miss Marston of the county of Gloucestershire.
From The Courtship of Morrice Buckler A Romance by A. E. W. (Alfred Edward Woodley) Mason
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
You know, to me, Clara, plighted faith, the affiancing of two lovers, is a piece of religion.
From The Egoist by George Meredith
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
Rumour said he had been on the point of affiancing another to one of the men now in prison.
From Twenty Years Of Balkan Tangle by M. E. (Mary Edith) Durham
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
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