sister-in-law
Americannoun
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the sister of one's spouse.
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the wife of one's brother or sister.
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the wife of one's spouse's sister or brother.
noun
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the sister of one's husband or wife
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the wife of one's brother
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of sister-in-law
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English syster in lawe; see origin at sister, in, law 1; from Middle English in-lawe “in law,” i.e., “a person within the regulation and protection of the law,” based on the prohibition by Roman civil law and, later, Christian canon law, of marriages within four degrees of consanguinity, i.e., up to and including first cousins
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.
