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

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

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

“I took the oath of office — lifted my hand off our family Bible — and inherited a nation in crisis,” Biden said.

From Washington Post • Apr. 28, 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

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