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war bride

American  

noun

  1. a woman who marries a serviceman about to go overseas in wartime.

  2. a woman who marries a foreign serviceman and goes to live in his country.


war bride British  

noun

  1. a soldier's bride met as a result of troop movements in wartime, esp a foreign national

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of war bride

First recorded in 1915–20

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.

See Examples For:

Her mother, Setsuko Takechi, a Japanese war bride like the five characters in “Tea,” gathered for tea once a month with her Japanese friends.

From Los Angeles Times May 4, 2022

Women married to career military men more easily found other Japanese war bride families to form friendships.

From Washington Post Sep. 22, 2016

A French war bride still lives there, and another British one lives in a nursing home in Oxford, she said.

From Washington Times Dec. 4, 2015

Portraying an Italian war bride transplanted to the middle of America, Ms. O’Hara finds a breathtaking sweep of feelings within the iteration of those three small syllables.

From New York Times Feb. 21, 2014

Mrs. Sutherland introduced her as "Our war bride," and told how Trooper had gone away at the first call of his country.

From In Orchard Glen by MacGregor, Mary Esther Miller

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