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
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 Blackmore, R. D. (Richard Doddridge)
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 Jusserand, Jean Jules
A prince who might have gone with gods to wive Nor bated them in choice!
From Semiramis and Other Plays Semiramis, Carlotta And The Poet by Dargan, Olive Tilford
Ono wived by letting husbands go; she mothered her daughter by letting her go.
From New York Times ● Oct. 21, 2012
From his mother the Evening Post learned their names, and that Soso has twice wived.
From Time Magazine Archive
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
I served through the war that made Europe free; I wived me in peace-year.
From Wessex Poems and Other Verses by Hardy, Thomas
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
The ancient saying is no heresy;— Hanging and wiving goes by destiny.
From Handy Dictionary of Poetical Quotations by Various
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
The ancient saying is no heresy: 'Hanging and wiving goes by destiny.'
From The Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare, William
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.
