daughter-in-law
Americannoun
plural
daughters-in-lawnoun
Etymology
Origin of daughter-in-law
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English doughter in lawe; see origin at daughter, in, law 1; from Middle English in-lawe “in law,” i.e., “a person within the regulation and protection of the law,” based on the prohibition by Roman civil law and, later, Christian canon law, of marriages within four degrees of consanguinity, i.e., up to and including first cousins
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.
Farran and her family stayed with some relatives, while her daughter-in-law went to stay with her parents.
From Barron's • Apr. 21, 2026
Woods is dating Trump’s former daughter-in-law, Vanessa Trump.
From Salon • Apr. 2, 2026
Carmen Tsang, Lai's daughter-in-law who lives in Hong Kong with her family, says her children miss grandpa - and the big family dinners he hosted every two weeks.
From BBC • Dec. 20, 2025
He used the savings, he said, to help his daughter-in-law pay for her prescription for the drug.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 8, 2025
Though she’d been polite enough the one time Gogol had brought Maxine to the house, Ashima doesn’t want her for a daughter-in-law.
From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri
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.
