family Bible

American  

noun

1. a large Bible usually having pages at the front for recording the marriages, births, and deaths in a family.

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family Bible British  

noun

1. a large Bible used for family worship in which births, marriages, and deaths are recorded

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Etymology

Origin of family Bible

First recorded in 1775–85

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

family Bible

Jones is equally adept at the delicate prose, as in this description of a well-worn family Bible: “The paper, thin as butterfly wings, was heavy with wisdom.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 24, 2026

Other items that will be auctioned off include Sherman’s uniform’s rank insignia worn during the Civil War, a family Bible and his personal, annotated copy of Ulysses S. Grant’s memoirs.

From Seattle Times ● May 10, 2024

Sheridan's track record leads me to guess that most people will trust that the scattered plot of "1923" will eventually knot into a story worth noting in the Dutton family Bible.

From Salon ● Dec. 18, 2022

Among the flood’s victims: the family Bible and a first edition of Izaak Walton’s biography of John Donne, Sir Henry Wotton, Richard Hooker and George Herbert.

From Washington Post ● Sep. 8, 2021

Chipper had, after all, eaten the family Bible the winter before, chewed right through it from Genesis to Revelation, shredding generations of inscribed Hickams in the process.

From "October Sky" by Homer Hickam