ppl. a. [f. WED v. + -ED1.]
1. Joined in wedlock; living in the married state.
a. 800[?]. Conf. Abp. Ecgbert, xx. in Thorpe, Laws (1840), II. 146. Ða ʓeweddodan fæmnan [L. puellam desponsatam] hire yldran hi ne moton syllan oðrum men.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 143. Þe weddede wiues.
c. 1200. Ormin, 4604. Weddedd were & weddedd wif.
13[?]. Cursor M., 10458 (Gött.). Quar-of suld i haue ioy or bliss, Quen i mi weddid lauerd miss?
c. 1381. Chaucer, Parl. Foules, 355. The wedded turtil with hire herte trewe.
c. 1412. Hoccleve, De Reg. Princ., 1623. And many wedded couples haue I knowe.
1548–9. Bk. Com. Prayer, Matrimony, 13 b. N. wilte thou haue this woman to thy wedded wife.
1607. Shaks., Per., III. iv. 9. My wedded Lord, I nere shall see againe.
1667. Milton, P. L., VIII. 605. Harmonie to behold in wedded pair More grateful then harmonious sound to the eare.
1717. Pope, Eloisa, 77. Let wealth, let honour, wait the wedded dame.
1740. Richardson, Pamela (1824), I. 205. I have been a close observer of the behaviour of wedded folks.
1798. T. Morton, Speed the Plough, V. i. She is my wife … My lawful, wedded wife.
1848. Mrs. Gaskell, Mary Barton, xxxiii. If she lives, she shall be my wedded wife.
1908. G. Tyrrell, in M. D. Petre, Life (1912), II. 380. I thought that Utrecht would faint at the idea of a wedded bishop.
b. absol. rare.
c. 1230. Hali Meid., 5. Þat bihald as of heh alle widewen under hire & weddede baðe.
1450–1530. Myrr. Our Ladye, II. 149. She fayled not … the chastyte of vyrgyns ne the plenteousnesse of wedded.
a. 1849. J. C. Mangan, Poems (1859), 62. Who pleads for thee thus, thy wedded shall be.
2. Of or pertaining to marriage or to married persons.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., I. v. 137 (Fo.). Go aske his name: if he be married, My graue is like to be my wedded bed [Qq. wedding bed].
1667. Milton, P. L., IV. 750. Haile wedded Love, mysterious Law, true sourse Of human ofspring.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 184, ¶ 2. As soon as she took upon her the wedded Condition.
1823. Scott, Quentin D., xxxi. I care not myself for the wedded state.
1830. Coleridge, Table-t., 27 Sept. Luther has sketched the most beautiful picture of the nature, and ends, and duties of the wedded life I ever read.
1866. Neale, Sequences & Hymns, 130. And wedded troth remains as firm, and wedded love as pure.
1888. Burgon, Lives 12 Gd. Men, II. v. 8. The sun of his wedded happiness set in this same year.
3. Obstinately attached (to an indulgence, a habit, opinion, party, etc.).
1579. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 117. If thou be either so wicked that thou wilt not, or so wedded that thou canst not abstein from their glaunces.
1721. Mortimer, Husb., i. 1. The wedded Opinions of the Generality to the Custom and Practice of their Neighbours.
1854. C. E. Norton, Lett. (1913), I. 106. New Hampshire,… the most wedded of all the Northern States to the Democratic party.
4. Of things: Coupled or joined together.
1842. Tennyson, Godiva, 43. Then fled she to her inmost bower and there Unclasp’d the wedded eagles of her belt.
1916. ‘Odysseus’ (V. C. Scott O’Connor), in Blackw. Mag., Nov., 572/1. The country-side [Italy] … was … Virgilian in its suggestion, with its wedded vines and elms, [etc.].
† 5. Wedded brother = wed-brother (see WED sb. 6). Obs. rare.
c. 1350. Athelston, ii. (Zupitza). For loue of here metyng þare Þey swoor hem weddyd breþeryn for euer mare, In trewþe trewely dede hem bynde. Ibid., xiv. Þy weddid broþir.
Hence † Weddedhood [-HOOD], Weddedness [-NESS], wedded state or condition.
a. 1450. Myrc, Par. Pr., 212. Dedly synne hyt ys forthe broght, Saue in here wedhode [v.r. wededhood] That ys feyre to-fore gode.
1891. Du Maurier, in Harper’s Mag., July, 181/1. He was by no means to me a picturesque or sympathetic apparition, with his weddedness, his whiskers, [etc.].
1903. Ld. R. Gower, Rec. & Remin., 538. He and his wife appear exceedingly fond of one another, a rare and refreshing state of weddedness nowadays.
