daughter-in-law
Americannoun
plural
daughters-in-lawnoun
Etymology
Origin of daughter-in-law
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English doughter in lawe; 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.
Woods is dating Trump’s former daughter-in-law, Vanessa Trump.
From Salon • Apr. 2, 2026
Muhammad Qaiser told the BBC that his wife, sister and daughter-in-law were among the missing.
From BBC • Jan. 20, 2026
I now have a question: My son and daughter-in-law want to purchase their first home in the Mid-Atlantic region.
From MarketWatch • Dec. 15, 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
Dorothy’s mother-in-law tried to dig in her heels against the growing distance between her son and daughter-in-law that she must have surmised for some time to be inevitable.
From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly
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.
