handfast
Americannoun
noun
-
an agreement, esp of marriage, confirmed by a handshake
-
a firm grip
verb
-
to betroth or marry (two persons or another person) by joining the hands
-
to grip with the hand
Etymology
Origin of handfast
1150–1200; Middle English (past participle), earlier handfest < Scandinavian; compare Old Norse handfestr, past participle of handfesta to betroth with a joining of hands, equivalent to hand hand + festa to betroth, literally, make fast, fasten
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“Please it you, Mistress Winter, I am handfast to wedlock; and he that shall be mine husband it is that I have talked withal this even.”
From For the Master's Sake A Story of the Days of Queen Mary by Horace Petherick
And anon he made them handfast, and wedded them.
From Le Mort d'Arthur: Volume 2 by Sir Thomas Malory
Yea, ye are mine, we are handfast wed, One with another.
From Poems and Ballads (Third Series) Taken from The Collected Poetical Works of Algernon Charles Swinburne—Vol. III by Algernon Charles Swinburne
Heart handfast in heart as they stood, "Look thither," Did he, whisper?
From The Home Book of Verse — Volume 3 by Burton Egbert Stevenson
Lindsay, the chronicler, says of Alexander Dunbar, son of the sixth Earl of Moray, and Isobel Innes,—“This Isobel was but handfast with him, and deceased before the marriage.”
From Bygone Church Life in Scotland by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
