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

With a crucial feature called “shift timing,” the machine was about the size of a family Bible and allowed the producer to program in human-style inconsistencies measure by measure.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 25, 2022

One of the only things he was able to salvage from his home was his family Bible, and inside he discovered his birth certificate, so at least now he has an ID.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 13, 2021

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

A great-uncle shared with him a family Bible that had belonged to his own great-grandmother, who was born into slavery in 1865, just before Emancipation.

From New York Times ● Feb. 26, 2021

Toting the desk into the parlor, I saw that Miss Love had laid the big Toy family Bible on Granny’s loveseat.

From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns