out of wedlock

Idioms

Of parents not legally married, as in Over the centuries many royal children were born out of wedlock. The noun wedlock, for the state of being married, is rarely heard today except in this phrase, first recorded in 1675; its converse, in wedlock, dates from the 1300s and is even more rarely used.

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.

“If we see that 70% of households are raising children out of wedlock, that means 30% are not,” Mr. Woodson once told me.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 3, 2026

Hamilton was born out of wedlock on the island of Nevis in the British West Indies.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 8, 2025

Maternity homes were popular before Roe as a place where usually teen mothers went to secretly have babies that were conceived out of wedlock.

From Slate • Jun. 24, 2025

The tabloid also paid $30,000 to a Trump Tower doorman who claimed to have a story about a child he alleged Trump had out of wedlock.

From Seattle Times • Apr. 12, 2024

He is what’s known as a bastard, a child born out of wedlock.

From "The Mona Lisa Vanishes" by Nicholas Day

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023