Obs. or dial. [f. BRIDE- = wedding, or in sense 2.]
† 1. = BRIDEGROOM. Obs.
1613. T. Godwin, Rom. Antiq. (1658), 75. The brideman did lift her over the threshold. Ibid., 121. The bride-man, as soon as he was married, used to cast nuts among the people.
2. A young man performing various ceremonial duties at a wedding; formerly called also bride-leader. (In early times the bridemen led the bride to the bridegroom.) Now = BRIDESMAN.
1663. Killigrew, Parson’s Wed., V. iv. Parson, I’ll be your bride-man.
1670. Dryden, Roy. Martyr, V. ii. Betwixt her Guards she seem’d by Bride-men led.
1751. Smollett, Per. Pic. (1779), I. iv. 33. To the utter disappointment of the bridemen and maids.
1813. Mar. Edgeworth, Patron., III. xxxix. 109. There is no record concerning who were the bridemen.
1830. Carlyle, in For. Rev. & Cont. Misc., V. 43. The evening-star, the brideman of the sun, hovers like a glancing butterfly above the rosy red.
