sb. Forms: 1 wedlác, 2–3 wedlac, (Ormin weddlac), 3–4 wedlak(e, wedlayk, 4 weddelak, wedlek, (5 vedlak), 6 wedlaike; 4–7 wedlok, 4–6 wedloke, 5–7 wedlocke, 7– wedlock. [OE. wedlác, f. wed pledge, WED sb. + -lác suffix forming nouns of action: see -LOCK in Additions, etc., Preface to the letter L.
In two vocabularies of the 11th c. wedlác renders L. arrabo earnest-money; but the sense, if it existed, did not survive into ME.]
† 1. The marriage vow or obligation. Chiefly in phrases, to hold, keep wedlock, to be faithful in marriage; to break (one’s) wedlock, to commit adultery. Obs.
a. 1100. Aldhelm Gloss., in Zeitschr. f. deutsches Alterthum, IX. 498/2. Pacta sponsalia refutans, wedlac wiðsacende.
c. 1200. Ormin, 2499. And tohh wass heh & soþ weddlac Haldenn onn eȝȝþerr hallfe.
c. 1230. Hali Meid., 19. Ȝif ha hare wedlac laheliche halden.
c. 1275. XI Pains of Hell, 105, in O. E. Misc., 150. Heo þat her wedlac brekeþ To heore muþe þe flod takeþ.
c. 1385. Chaucer, L. G. W., 295. For alle kepid they here maydynhed Or ellis wedlek.
1426. Audelay, Poems, 3. Kepe ȝoure wedloke.
1450–1530. Myrr. Our Ladye, II. 207. How wedlocke betwyxte man and woman shulde be kepte after the lawe of god.
c. 1511. 1st Eng. Bk. Amer. (Arb.), Introd. 35/2. There is … noman so hardy that dare breke his wedloke.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss. (1812), I. xxi. 30. Howe be it she kept but euyll the sacrament of matrimony, but brake her wedloke.
1526. Tindale, Matt. v. 32. And whosoever maryeth her that is divorsed, breketh wedlocke.
1553. T. Wilson, Rhet., Pref. A iii. None remembred the true obseruation of wedlocke.
1579. Rice, Invect. Vices, E iv. Christe aunswered, thou shalt not steale: Thou shalte not breake wedlocke: Thou shalte not kill.
1604. Shaks., Oth., V. ii. 142. Æmil. That she was false to Wedlocke? Oth. I, with Cassio. Ibid. (1611), Wint. T., V. i. 124. Your Mother was most true to Wedlock.
2. The condition of being married; marriage as a state of life or as an institution; matrimonial relationship. Now only in literary or legal use.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 206. Uor hwuso hit euer is idon,… bute ono ine wedlake, hit is deadlich sunne.
c. 1230. Hali Meid. (Titus MS.), 13. Hit [sc. coition] is tah in wedlac summes weis to þolien. Ibid., 33. Wedlac haueð hire frut þritti fald in heuene; widewehad, sixti fald.
1303. R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 11201. For many come neuer yn wedlak But for þe fyrst cunnaunt þat men spak.
c. 1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. X. 202 (MS. T.). Siþþe lawe haþ y-grauntid þat iche man haue a make in maner of wedlak.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Merch. T., 20. Noon oother lyf, seyde he, is worth a bene, For wedlok is so esy and so clene That in this world it is a Paradys.
1387. Trevisa, Higden, IV. 353. In a nyȝt whan þei hadde i-payde dette of wedlok eyþer to oþer.
c. 1440. York Myst., xii. 261. In lele wedlak þou lede þe.
a. 1450. Mirk’s Festial, 108. Yf scho had conceyuet out of wedlocke, þe Iewes wold haue sayde scho had ben a lechore.
1490. Caxton, Eneydos, xiii. 46. Iuno, the goddesse of wedlocke.
1548–9. Bk. Com. Prayer, Marriage, 14 b. Forasmuche as N. and N. haue consented together in holye wedlocke.
1576. Fleming, Panopl. Epist., 287. They put away their wyues, and enter againe into wedlocke.
1582. Stanyhurst, Æneis, II. (Arb.), 68. Of Venus in wedlock thee daughter [Veneris nurus].
1595. Shaks., John, I. i. 117. Your brother is Legittimate, Your fathers wife did after wedlocke beare him.
1597. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. lxxiii. § 2. That kind of loue which is the perfectest ground of wedlocke is seldome able to yeeld any reason of it selfe.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 39. [The Banians] so extreamely honour Wedlocke, that they seldome are vnmarried at seuen yeares of age.
1671. Milton, Samson, 353. I pray’d for Children, and thought barrenness In wedlock a reproach.
1765. Foote, Commissary, I. 9. I look upon wedlock to be a kind of lottery.
1797. S. James, Narr. Voy., 170. He offered Haswell his sister in wedlock.
1807. Crabbe, Par. Reg., II. 362. Children from wedlock we by laws restrain.
1829. Lytton, Devereux, I. i. Sir Arthur had two children by wedlock.
1854. Milman, Lat. Christ., VI. iii. (1864), III. 441. Heribert himself, the great Archbishop, was a married man; his wedlock had neither diminished his power nor barred his canonisation.
1879. Dixon, Windsor, I. iv. 34. In her early days of wedlock, he neglected her.
fig. c. 1400. 26 Pol. Poems, xxii. 25. To god, thi wedlok wiþ loue holde.
c. 1530. Tindale, Jonah, Prol. (1863), B ij b. This euell … nacion (which breake ye wedlocke of faith wherwith they be maried vn to God).
transf. 1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 203. Instructed thus, produce him [the stallion] to the Fair; And join in Wedlock to the longing Mare.
b. Born in (or † under), out of wedlock: said distinctively of legitimate or illegitimate offspring. Now the most frequent use of the sb.
c. 1205. Lay., 395. Assaracus heuede enne broþer þe wes under wedlac iboren.
1340. Hampole, Pr. Consc., 8261. Som þat er in lele wedlayk born.
c. 1400. Gosp. Nicodemus (G.), 252. In wedlayk [v.rr. wedlake, wedloyke] was he born.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, X. xxiii. 451. Sire Aglouale was his fyrste sone begoten in wedlok.
1547. Test. Ebor. (Surtees), VI. 262. His bretheren and susters gotten in wedlaike.
1634. Canne, Necess. Separ., v. 219. Those children … which are born under wedlock.
1675. Char. Town-Gallant, 2. He is so bitter an Enemy to Marriage, that one would suspect him born out of Lawful Wedlock.
1765. Blackstone, Comm., I. 434. A legitimate child is he that is born in lawful wedlock.
1824. W. Irving, T. Trav., II. II. 25. I forgave the fellow … his two heinous crimes, of having been born in wedlock, and inheriting my estate.
1891. E. Peacock, N. Brendon, II. 97. He did not believe that little Bessy was born in wedlock.
1911. Encycl. Brit., XVI. 379/2. The question remains, how far, if at all, English law recognizes the legitimacy of a person born out of wedlock.
c. In particularized sense: A matrimonial union; a married life.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. IX. 152. And þus þourw cursed caym cam care vppon erthe; And al for þei wrouȝt wedlokes aȝein goddis wille.
1450–1520. Myrr. Our Ladye, II. 206. Thys lesson tellyth … how holy a wedlocke was betwyxte Ioachym and Anne. Ibid., 207. Whyle he [God] behelde all the rightwys and honeste wedlockes that shulde be from the fyrste makeynge of man vnto the laste day.
1581. Studley, Seneca’s Hercules Œtæus, II. 197. O woefull wight, it pitieth vs to see Thy wedlock in this tickle state to bee.
1624. Fletcher, Rule a Wife, V. (1640), 64. Tis sacriledge to violate a wedlock.
1825. Scott, Betrothed, xii. It was then your mother … of whose unhappy wedlock you have spoken?
1846. E. Jerrold, St. Giles, xxxiv. And Snipeton, his wife in her winding-sheet, might so have solemnised a second wedlock.
† d. A marriage ceremony, wedding. Obs.
a. 1300. K. Horn (Camb. MS.), 1254. Hi Runge þe belle Þe wedlak for to felle.
† 3. A wife. Obs.
a. 1561. Nuce, Seneca’s Octavia, IV. i. F iij. Cæsars wedlock are you.
1567. Turberv., Ovid’s Epist., 149 b. [Ulysses says] But I, not forcing of their giftes, did loue my wedlock best.
1567. Golding, Ovid’s Met., IX. (1593), 213. He heard his wedlocke shreeking out, and did her calling knowe.
1601. B. Jonson, Poetaster, IV. iii. Which of these is thy wedlocke, Menelavs? thy Hellen?
1605. Chapman, All Fooles, I. ii. 118. Valerio, here’s a simple meane for you To lye at racke and manger with your wedlocke.
1606. Marston, Parasitaster, II. i. C 3. But to lie with ones brothers wedlocke, O my deere Herod, tis vile and vncommon lust.
1611. Middleton & Dekker, Roaring Girl, I. i. E 4 b. He watches For quarrelling wedlockes, and poore shifting sisters.
1617. Fletcher, Valentinian, V. vi. The most true constant lover of his wedlock.
1690. Dryden, Don Sebastian, II. ii. For his Wedlock for all her haughtiness, I find her coming.
4. Comb. a. Simple attrib. (now rare or Obs.) as in wedlock-band, -bed, -debt, -knot, etc.
1422. Yonge, trans. Secreta Secret., 194. To pay wedlak dette hit is of no syn.
1557. Will J. Amcottes (Somerset Ho.). In the choyse of their wedlockmates.
1586. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., I. 457. By wedlocke copulation we came into the world.
1593. Shaks., 3 Hen. VI., III. iii. 243. Ile ioyne mine eldest daughter … To him forthwith, in holy Wedlocke bands. Ibid. (1596), Merch. V., V. i. 32. She kneeles and prayes For happy wedlocke houres. Ibid. (1600), A. Y. L., V. iv. 150. Whiles a Wedlocke Hymne we sing.
16[?]. Middleton, etc., Old Law, V. i. Will it please you to taste of the wedlock courtesie?
1624. Davenport, City Night-cap, II. (1661), 17. Since our marriage, I have perform’d So fairly all judicial wedlock-offices, That [etc.].
1635. J. Taylor (Water P.), Old Old Man, B 3 b. She dead, he ten yeares did a Widdower stay; Then once more ventred in the Wedlock way.
1671. Milton, Samson, 986. Who to save Her countrey from a fierce destroyer chose Above the faith of wedlock-bands. Ibid., 1009. Love-quarrels oft in pleasing concord end, Not wedlock-trechery endangering life.
1819. Scott, Noble Moringer, i. It was the noble Moringer in wedlock bed he lay.
1824. J. Symmons, trans. Æschylus’ Agamemnon, 64. To Ilion came the wedlock-woe.
† b. wedlock-bound a., bound in marriage; wedlock-breaker, an adulterer; so wedlock-breaking sb. and a. Obs.
a. 1400. in Horstm., Altengl. Leg. (1881), 370. Werne euery man … Off wedloke-brekynge wer to be.
c. 1500. Mayd Emlyn, in Anc. Poet. Tracts (Percy Soc.), 23. All wedlocke brekers.
c. 1530. Tindale, Jonah, Prol. (1863), B ij b. This euell & wedlocke breakinge nacion … seke a signe.
1552. Latimer, Serm. Lincs., i. (1562), 67. Thou shalt not be a wedlock breaker.
1608. Topsell, Serpents, 267. Wedlocke breakers, & Cockold-makers.
1667. Milton, P. L., X. 905. Alreadie linkt and Wedlock-bound To a fell Adversarie.
Hence † Wedlock v. trans., to unite in marriage (in quots. passive); also (nonce-use), to wedlock it, to get married. † Wedlockable a., marriageable. † Wedlockhood, the married state.
c. 1230. Hali Meid. (Titus MS.), 33. Or þeos þre had, meidenhad & widewehad, & te þridde, wedlachad [Bodley MS. wedlac].
1557. Phaër, Æneid, VII. (1558), S iij. One doughter did remayne … Now husbandripe, now wedlockable full, of laufull yeres.
1644. Milton, Divorce, II. xv. (ed. 2), 60. Is it not most likely that God in his Law had more pitty towards man thus wedlockt, then towards the woman that was created for another.
1674. N. Fairfax, Bulk & Selv., Ep. Ded. That man … will never feel himself less at ease for being wedlockt but to one.
1737. Ozell, Rabelais, III. ix. 50. A single Person is never seen to reap the Joy and Solace that is found among those that are Wedlockt. Wedlock it then in the Name of God, quoth Pantagruel.
