wive
Americanverb (used without object)
verb (used with object)
-
to take as wife; marry.
-
to provide with a wife.
verb
-
to marry (a woman)
-
(tr) to supply with a wife
Etymology
Origin of wive
before 900; Middle English wiven, Old English wīfian, derivative of wīf; see wife
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:
The men of Padua, where Fred Graham’s Petruchio has “come to wive it wealthily,” sport brightly hued tights, exaggerated codpieces and lavishly plumed caps.
From New York Times ● May 30, 2015
But when I came, alas! to wive, With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,By swaggering could I never thrive, For the rain it raineth every day.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 1, 2013
“They that wive Between sickle and scythe, Shall never thrive.”
From Rambles in an Old City comprising antiquarian, historical, biographical and political associations by Madders, S. S.
Nou ich am in clene live Ne recche ich of childe ne of wive.
From Medieval English Literature Home University of Modern Knowledge #43 by Ker, W. P. (William Paton)
Design or chance makes others wive, But Nature did this match contrive.
From Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 1 A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook by Brewer, Ebenezer Cobham
Ono wived by letting husbands go; she mothered her daughter by letting her go.
From New York Times ● Oct. 21, 2012
Scoffers at U. S. learning might with a modicum of justice point out that Dr. Carrel is French-born, educated and wived, that Dr. Landsteiner is Austrian-born, educated and wived.
From Time Magazine Archive
From his mother the Evening Post learned their names, and that Soso has twice wived.
From Time Magazine Archive
Here is Cassio's warm-hearted, yet perfectly disengaged, praise of Desdemona, and sympathy with the “most fortunately” wived Othello;—and yet Cassio is an enthusiastic admirer, almost a worshipper, of Desdemona.
From Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher by Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
Mont. But, good lieutenant, is your general wived?
From Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher by Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
Fighting, writing, digging, rigging, Hiving, wiving, nursing, versing.
From Time Magazine Archive
Unable to get along on his $150,000 yearly income from a trust fund, Dodge managed to borrow at least $10 million from his mother, Mrs. Anna Thomson Dodge, 99, to bankroll his wining and wiving.
From Time Magazine Archive
Thou'st cause, when the slave will run a wiving, Dol, Against the instrument that was drawn between us.
From The Alchemist by Jonson, Ben
He is hit off as So fervent hot wooing, and so far from wiving, I trow, never was any creature living.
From Amenities of Literature Consisting of Sketches and Characters of English Literature by Disraeli, Isaac
I am like to lose all hope of wiving, if this be the maiden I am to woo.
From Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 by Roby, John
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.
