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

South Carolina had no official record of her birth, according to her son, but Ms. McLaurin said she believed her birth date to have been recorded in a family Bible as March 12, 1909.

From Washington Post ● Nov. 15, 2022

The family Bible and a huge dictionary with its own magnifying glass lay side by side next to a red plush album full of cramped formal portraits of my ancestors.

From "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" by Jacqueline Kelly