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:
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 Beardslee, Clark S.
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 France, Marie de
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 Holt, Emily Sarah
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 Rhys, Ernest
Thus he pledged his faith, and the Duke accepted his affiance.
From French Mediaeval Romances from the Lays of Marie de France by France, Marie de
The “Beast Games” host, 26, who is the most-subscribed-to YouTuber, proposed to his girlfriend of two years on Christmas Day and revealed on New Year’s Day that they were affianced.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 2, 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
Most of my friends are married, affianced, or gobbled up by Los Angeles, or veganism.
From New York Times ● Jan. 2, 2018
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
I have suffered deeply in mind since we parted, on account of the strange words you let fall last evening; and I now seek your presence to demand, as your affianced husband, their signification.
From Antigua and the Antiguans, Volume I (of 2) A full account of the colony and its inhabitants from the time of the Caribs to the present day by Anonymous
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
Then they feasted, with unearthly servitors to attend them, and did all else appropriate to an affiancing of deities.
From Figures of Earth by Cabell, James Branch
You know, to me, Clara, plighted faith, the affiancing of two lovers, is a piece of religion.
From The Egoist by Meredith, George
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 Hume, David
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 Durham, M. E. (Mary Edith)
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.
