brother-in-law
[bruhth -er-in-law]
noun, plural broth·ers-in-law.
the brother of one's husband or wife.
the husband of one's sister.
the husband of one's wife's or husband's sister.
RELATED CONTENT
RELATED WORDS
father, sibling, mother, cousin, folk, uncle, niece, aunt, agnate, cognate, connection, blood, folks, relation, grandparents, sister-in-law, stepbrother, mother-in-law, sib, stepparent
Nearby words
- brothel,
- brother,
- brother jonathan,
- brother of the christian schools,
- brother's keeper, am i my,
- brotherhood,
- brotherliness,
- brotherly,
- brothers karamazov, the,
- brotula
Origin of brother-in-law
Middle English word dating back to 1250–1300
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for brother-in-law
brother-in-law
noun plural brothers-in-law
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
brother-in-law
c.1300; also brother in law; see brother. In Arabic, Urdu, Swahili, etc., brother-in-law, when addressed to a male who is not a brother-in-law, is an extreme insult, with implications of "I slept with your sister."
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper