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l law adopted in the Christian Church, certain portions of which (for example, the law of marriage as existing before the Council of Tent) were brought to America by the English colonists as part of the common law of the land. Wharton. -- Civil law, a term used by writers to designate Roman law, with modifications the…

-- said of a twist, a rotary motion, etc., looked at from a given direction. Left-handed marriage, a morganatic marriage. See Morganatic. -- Left-handed screw, a screw constructed to advance away from the observer, when turned, as in a nut, with a left-handed rotation. An ordinary wood screw is right-handed.…

A husband's brother; -- used in reference to levirate marriages.

d without issue, was married to the husband's brother. The firstborn son of a leviratical marriage was reckoned and registered as the son of the deceased brother. Alford.

Levirate marriage or marriages. Kitto.

cus. Ayliffe. Levitical degrees, degrees of relationship named in Leviticus, within which marriage is forbidden.

ship; -- chiefly in the phrase to make love, i. e., to court, to woo, to solicit union in marriage. Demetrius . . . Made love to Nedar's daughter, Helena, And won her soul. Shak.

ge with a pair of white gloves. Smart. -- Maiden name, the surname of a woman before her marriage. -- Maiden pink. (Bot.) See under Pink. -- Maiden plum (Bot.), a West Indian tree (Comocladia integrifolia) with purplish drupes. The sap of the tree is glutinous, and gives a persistent black stain. -- Maiden speech,…

A person born of relations between whom marriage was forbidden by the Mosaic law; a bastard. Deut. xxiii. 2 (Douay version).

Marriageable.[Obs.]

In old English and in Scots law, a fine paid to the lord of the soil by a tenant upon the marriage of one the tenant's daughters.

Marriageable. [R.] Coleridge.

Of or pertaining to marriage; connubial; as, the married state.

A matrimonial union; a marriage.

One who tries to bring about marriages.

The act or process of trying to bring about a marriage for others.

Of or pertaining to marriage; derived from marriage; connubial; nuptial; hymeneal; as, matrimonial rights or duties. If he relied upon that title, he could be but a king at courtesy, and have rather a matrimonial than a regal power. Bacon.

The union of man and woman as husband and wife; the nuptial state; marriage; wedlock. If either of you know any impediment, why ye may not be lawfully joined together in matrimony, ye do now confessit. Book of Com. Prayer (Eng. Ed. )

A marriage with a person of inferior social position; a misalliance.

A marriage with a person of inferior rank or social station; an improper alliance; a mesalliance. A Leigh had made a misalliance, and blushed A Howard should know it. Mrs. Browning.