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Marriage only within the tribe; a custom restricting a man in his choice of a wife to the tribe to which he belongs; -- opposed to exogamy.

rovision for; to settle an income upon; especially, to furnish with dower; as, to endow a wife; to endow a public institution. Endowing hospitals and almshouses. Bp. Stillingfleet.

e of being engaged, pledged or occupied; specif., a pledge to take some one as husband or wife.

y; to beseech; to petition or pray with urgency; to supplicate; to importune. "Entreat my wife to come." "I do entreat your patience." Shak. I must entreat of you some of that money. Shak. Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door. Poe. Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife. Gen. xxv. 21.…

An equitable claim; an equity of redemption; as, an equity to a settlement, or wife's equity, etc. I consider the wife's equity to be too well settled to be shaken. Kent.

n of pretense, an escutcheon used in English heraldry to display the arms of the bearer's wife; -- not commonly used unless she an heiress. Cf. Impalement.

To take as spouse; to take to wife; to marry. Lavinia will I make my empress, . . . And in the sacred Pantheon her espouse. Shak.

ws; perfidious; trecherous; disloyal; not of true fidelity; inconstant, as a husband or a wife. A most unnatural and faithless service. Shak.

The group comprising a husband and wife and their dependent children, constituting a fundamental unit in the organization of society. The welfare of the family underlies the welfare of society. H. Spencer.

The father of one's husband or wife; -- correlative to son-in- law and daughter-in-law.

Fidelity; constancy; faithfulness, as of a friend to a friend, or of a wife to her husband. He should maintain fealty to God. I. Taylor. Makes wicked lightnings of her eyes, and saps The fealty of our friends. tennyson. Swore fealty to the new government. Macaulay.

A consort, husband or wife; a companion; a fere. [Obs.]

A mate or companion; -- often used of a wife. [Obs.] [Written also fear and feere.] Chaucer. And Cambel took Cambrina to his fere. Spenser. In fere, together; in company. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Affectionate; loving; tender; -- in a good sense; as, a fond mother or wife. Addison.

See Loan.], remuneration fixed for the rearing of a foster child; also, the jointure of a wife. [Obs.] Wharton. -- Foster mother, a woman who takes a mother's place in the nurture and care of a child; a nurse. -- Foster nurse, a nurse; a nourisher. [R.] Shak. -- Foster parent, a foster mother or foster father. -- F…

A certain tenure in tail special; an estate of inheritance given to a man his wife (the wife being of the blood of the donor), and descendible to the heirs of their two bodies begotten. [Obs.] Blackstone.

In Germany, a woman; a married woman; a wife; -- as a title, equivalent to Mrs., Madam.

Apt to change the mind suddenly; whimsical; capricious. It may be a question whether the wife or the woman was the more freakish of the two. L'Estrange. Freakish when well, and fretful when she's sick. Pope. -- Freak"ish*ly, adv. -- Freak"ish*ness, n.

The wife of Odin and mother of the gods; the supreme goddess; the Juno of the Valhalla. Cf. Freya.

To expose to the effect of frost, or a frosty air; to blight or nip with frost. My wife up and with Mrs. Pen to walk in the fields to frostbite themselves. Pepys.