espouse
[ih-spouz, ih-spous]
- to make one's own; adopt or embrace, as a cause.
- to marry.
- to give (a woman) in marriage.
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Origin of espouse
1425–75; late Middle English < Middle French espouser < Latin spōnsāre to betroth, espouse
Synonyms
See more synonyms for espouse on Thesaurus.com1. support, champion, advocate.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for espoused
Contemporary Examples
Pearce, Ready said, espoused “neo-Nazi philosophy completely.”
Jason Todd Ready, an Arizona White Supremacist, Kills Four, Then HimselfTerry Greene Sterling
May 3, 2012
Santorum espoused this worldview back in 2008, in a speech to Ave Maria University.
Certainly, Paine espoused suspicion of too-powerful states, which makes him eminently quotable by Tea Partiers now.
At that point I legitimately believed everything I espoused.
The ideals are the greatest ever espoused in human history, and we just need the country to live up to them.
Historical Examples
I do not ask your name, nor do I wish to know which cause you have espoused.
John Gayther's Garden and the Stories Told ThereinFrank R. Stockton
And especially, how would she be regarded by her espoused husband?
Jesus the ChristJames Edward Talmage
Eventually he returned to the party which he had espoused, and escaped to France.
Memoirs of the Jacobites of 1715 and 1745.Mrs. Thomson
Lately the Democrats have espoused "free silver," and the Republicans have "buried" them.
As A Chinaman Saw UsAnonymous
He had been living all these years for himself, was it not time that he espoused some other motive?
A Little Girl in Old SalemAmanda Minnie Douglas
espouse
- to adopt or give support to (a cause, ideal, etc)to espouse socialism
- archaic (esp of a man) to take as spouse; marry
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Word Origin
C15: from Old French espouser, from Latin spōnsāre to affiance, espouse
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for espoused
espouse
v.
mid-15c., "to take as spouse, marry," from Old French espouser "marry, take in marriage, join in marriage" (11c., Modern French épouser), from Latin sponsare, past participle of spondere (see espousal).
Extended sense of "adopt, embrace" a cause, party, etc., is from 1620s. Related: Espoused; espouses; espousing. For initial e-, see especial.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper