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escendants, however remote from the stock. To the gods alone Our future offspring and our wives are known. Dryden.

s b and cwritten also oldwife.] (a) A prating old woman; a gossip. Refuse profane and old wives' fables. 1 Tim. iv. 7.

on; a roost; figuratively, any elevated resting place or seat. As chauntecleer among his wives all Sat on his perche, that was in his hall. Chaucer. Not making his high place the lawless perch Of winged ambitions. Tennyson.

To practice polygamy; to marry several wives. Sylvester. Coleridge.

r pertaining to polygamy; characterized by, or involving, polygamy; having a plurality of wives; as, polygamous marriages; -- opposed to monogamous.

The having of a plurality of wives or husbands at the same time; usually, the marriage of a man to more than one woman, or the practice of having several wives, at the same time; -- opposed to monogamy; as, the nations of the East practiced polygamy. See the Note under Bigamy, and cf. Polyandry.

The state or practice of having several wives at the same time; marriage to several wives. H. Spenser.

To cast reproach; to cause censure or dishonor. Errors of wives reflect on husbands still. Dryden. Neither do I reflect in the least upon the memory of his late majesty. Swift.

A harem; a place for keeping wives or concubines; sometimes, loosely, a place of licentious pleasure; a house of debauchery.

vision. [Obs. or Prov.Eng.] They say also that the manner of making the shed of newwedded wives' hair with the iron head of a javelin came up then likewise. Sir T. North.

ends on our subjection to the laws. "To be bound under subjection." Chaucer. Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands. 1 Peter iii. 1. Because the subjection of the body to the will is by natural necessity, the subjection of the will unto God voluntary, we stand in need of direction after what sort our…

d said unto her, Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands. Gen. xvi. 9. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands. Eph. v. 22.

Those. [Obs.] This knowen tho that be to wives bound. Chaucer.

One who has been married three times; also, one who has three husbands or three wives at the same time.

state of being married, three times; also, the offense of having three husbands or three wives at the same time.

rtain compounds and phrases, as alewife, fishwife, goodwife, and the like. " Both men and wives." Piers Plowman. On the green he saw sitting a wife. Chaucer.

urn side; to swerve. This Phebus gan awayward for to wryen. Chaucer. How many Must murder wives much better than themselves For wrying but a little! Shak.