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
Nou ich am in clene live, Ne recche ich of childe ne of wive.
From A Literary History of the English People From the Origins to the Renaissance by Jean Jules Jusserand
God grant us all to thrive, And for a twelvemonth to be alive, And every bachelor to wive; And many blessings on the head Of our dear Presidential Ted.
From Julia Ward Howe 1819-1910 by Maud Howe Elliott
Therefore, as the old saying is,— Farmer, that thy wife may thrive, Let not burr and burdock wive; And if thou wouldst keep thy son, See that bine and gith have none.
From Lorna Doone; a Romance of Exmoor by R. D. (Richard Doddridge) Blackmore
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
I would ha' laid thee in thy tomb Or e'er that witch had wived with thee!
From Margarita's Soul The Romantic Recollections of a Man of Fifty by J. Scott (John Scott) Williams
Well wived then the king would be, if the pangs of perjury caused me no pain.
From The Elder Eddas of Saemund Sigfusson; and the Younger Eddas of Snorre Sturleson by Saemund Sigfusson
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
Fighting, writing, digging, rigging, Hiving, wiving, nursing, versing.
From Time Magazine Archive
In wiving and thriving men should take counsel of all the world.
From Dictionary of English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases With a Copious Index of Principal Words by Thomas Preston
And Nerissa, the bright waiting maid, says: "The ancient saying is no heresy;— Hanging and wiving go by destiny!"
From Shakspere, Personal Recollections by John A. Joyce
Thou'st cause, when the slave will run a wiving, Dol, Against the instrument that was drawn between us.
From The Alchemist by Ben Jonson
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
