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''betroth'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

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''betroth'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260605232103-00-⌔

betroth - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Verb

betroth (third-person singular simple present betroths, present participle betrothing, simple past betrothed, past participlebetrothed or betrothen) (transitive, formal)

  • (archaic) Of a man: to promise to take (a woman) as a future spouse; to plight one’s troth to.
    • ✤ And what man is there that hath betrothed a wife, and hath not taken her? let him goe and returne vnto his houſe, leſt he die in battel, and another man take her.1
  • (archaic) Often of a parent or guardian: to promise that (two people) be married to each other; specifically and chiefly, to promise that (a woman) be given in marriage to a man; to affiance.
    • ✤ He betrothed his daughter to a distant relative.
    • ✤ The couple were betrothed not long after they met each other.
    • ✤ You to remoue that ſiege of griefe from her[Juliet]/Betrothd and vvould haue married her perforce/To Countie Paris.2
    • ✤ To me, O Bacchus thou betrothedſt Heaven:/Ah me! for heaven vvhat dovvries here are given!3
    • ✤ VVherefore let Chriſtiana look out ſome Damſels for her Sons, to vvhom they may be Betroathed, &c. that the Name of their Father, and the Houſe of his Progenitors may never be forgotten in the VVorld.4
    • ✤ And in the ſixth month the angel Gabriel vvas ſent from God, unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, To a virgin eſpouſed to a man, vvhoſe name vvas Joſeph, of the houſe of David, and the virgins name vvas Mary. […] [Note] 26, 27. Not married but betrothed.5
    • ✤ [T]he Teſtimony of the Man and VVoman thus betrothed unto each other ſhall likevviſe be good Evidence of ſuch a Contract [of espousal], if they confeſs the ſame, ſince Eſpouſals are contracted by Conſent alone.6
    • ✤ [T]here is a given a love truly conjugial, the delights vvhereof are myriads, ſcarce any of vvhich are as yet knovvn to the vvorld; but they vvill be knovvn, vvhen the church betrotheth herſelf to her Lord[Jesus], and is married.7
    • ✤ How! thou betrothest thee now to a second? Seer that there come not/Thy first bridegroom back to forbid the banns at the altar!8
    • ✤ We loved each other at once, but she was betrothed to her guardian Ko-Ko, a cheap tailor, and I saw that my suit was hopeless.9
    • ✤ In fact Eline betrothes herself to Nils Lykke and is distraught shen she learns who he is.10
    • ✤ One enduring legacy of intermarriage in Egypt is the practice of betrothing girls at birth. […] Strangely, the practice of betrothing girls at birth has survived the test of time and is still being practised by some African tribes.11
  • (figurative)
    • (Christianity, archaic) Of God: to enter into a relationship with (believers, or the church as a whole); also, of a priest: to pledge (himself) to the church prior to being consecrated as a bishop.
      • ✤ And I[God] will betroth thee [his people] vnto me foreuer; yea, I will betroth thee vnto me in righteouſneſſe, and in iudgement, and in louing kindneſſe, and in mercies. I will euen betroth thee vnto me in faithfulneſſe, and thou ſhalt know the Lord.12
      • ✤ God betrotheth thee in righteouſnes, and putteth righteouſnes into thee; […]13
      • ✤ He[Jesus] has paid my Debts to thy [God the Father ‘s] Juſtice, and thou vvill not be tvvice paid: Thou betrotheſt in Judgment, on mature Counſel; thy Gifts and Callings are vvithout Repentance: Thou foreſavveſt all Events, and hovv often I ſhould abuſe thy Mercy, grieve thy Spirit, and yet betrothedſt in Judgment: […]14
      • ✤ [W]henever any Biſhop is conſecrated, he be conſecrated to ſome certain and determinate Church, to vvhich he vvas betrothed, or became a Spouſe at the Time of his Confirmation. Hereby it ſeems, that if any Perſon be conſecrated a Biſhop to that Church, vvhereunto he vvas not before betrothed, he ſhall not receive the Habit of Conſecration, as not being Canonically promoted to it.15
      • ✤ [M]ay my soul remember thee, oh thou God of my salvation! […] [T]hou passedst by, and didst bid me live, and didst cleanse me, and take me home, and betrothedst me to thyself, and made me thine for ever; […]16
    • (obsolete) To pledge or promise oneself to (a cause); to espouse; also (sometimes reflexive), to pledge or promise (oneself or one’s efforts) to a cause or to do something.
      • ✤ To priuate fight they haue betroutht themſelues,/Of which conflicte, the end muſt needes be this,/That one do liue, that other die the death.17
      • ✤ [W]hat is he for a foole that betrothes himſelfe to vnquietneſſe?18
      • ✤ He [John Donne] vvas novv entered into the eighteenth year of his age, and at that time had betrothed himſelf to no Religion that might give him any other denomination than a Chriſtian.19
      • ✤ It vvill be enough for thoſe that have betrothed the VVay[Christianity], that many are the hands heads and hearts of ſuch vvorthy and unvvearied Gentlemen as are Going along vvith them.20
      • ✤ [C]ontinuing to work on my Ph.D., still renting an apartment in Australia, […] I am out of sight, out of mind, I don’t belong, a special COVID status is given for me to go on. A three-month renewal to which I am now betrothen, the plans I submit get pushed with delay after delay.21

Etymology

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From Middle English bitrouthen, bitreuthen (“of a man: to pledge to marry; to give (a woman) in marriage, arrange the marriage of”),22 from bi- (prefix forming transitive verbs from nouns)23 + trouth, treuthe (“faithfulness, fidelity, specifically marital fidelity; promise, undertaking, specifically a promise of marriage; truth; etc.”)24 (from Old English trīewþ, trēowþ (“fidelity; good faith, honour; assurance of good faith, covenant, troth; truth”),25 from Proto-Germanic ﹡triwwiþō (“contract; promise”), from Proto-Indo-European ﹡dóru (“tree; hence, firm, hard; faithful, true”)), possibly modelled after Old English trēowsian (“to pledge oneself; to prove oneself to be true”)).2627 By surface analysis, be- +‎ troth.

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /bɪˈtɹəʊð/, /-ˈtɹəʊθ/
  • Audio (Southern England);/bɪˈtɹəʊð/: 🔊
  • (US, Canada) IPA: /bəˈtɹoʊð/, /-ˈtɹɔθ/
  • Audio (General American);/bəˈtɹoʊð/: 🔊
  • (Australian) IPA: /bɪˈtɹəʉð/, /bɪˈtɹɐʉð/
  • Audio (Queensland);/bɪˈtɹɐʉð/: 🔊
  • Rhymes: -əʊð, -əʊθ, -ɔθ
  • Hyphenation: be‧troth

Printed 2026-06-28.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

  1. 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Deuteronomy 20:7, signature [S5], verso, column 2: ↩

  2. c. 1591–1595 (date written), [William Shakespeare], * […] Romeo and Iuliet. […]* (Second Quarto), London: […] Thomas Creede, for Cuthbert Burby, […], published 1599, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii], signature M, recto: ↩

  3. 1640, Ovid, “The Third Book; or, March”, in John Gower, transl., Ovids Festivalls, or Romane Calendar, […], Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Roger Daniel, printer to the University of Cambridge; [a] nd are to be sold by M[ichael] S[parke] junior, […], →OCLC, page 61: ↩

  4. 1684, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress. From This World to That which is to Come: The Second Part. […], London: […] Nathaniel Ponder […], →OCLC, page 147: ↩

  5. 1685, Richard Baxter, A Paraphrase on the New Testament, with Notes, Doctrinal and Practical. […], London: […] B. Simmons, […], →OCLC, Luke I:26–27, note, signature[a], verso, column 2: ↩

  6. 1726, John Ayliffe, “Of Espousals de Futuro, Commonly Called Præcontracts”, in Parergon Juris Canonici Anglicani: Or, A Commentary, by Way of Supplement to the Canons and Constitutions of the Church of England. […], London: […] D. Leach, and sold by John Walthoe […], →OCLC, page 248: ↩

  7. 1794, Emanuel Swedenborg, “Concerning the Causes of Apparent Love, of Friendship, and of Favour in Marriages”, in[anonymous], transl., The Delights of Wisdom Concerning Conjugial Love: […] Translated from the Latin […], London: […] R. Hindmarsh, […], →OCLC, paragraph 293, page 281: ↩

  8. 1847, Göthe [i.e., Johann Wolfgang von Goethe], “Hermann and Dorothea. Urania. The Denoument.”, in W[illiam] W[hewell], transl., English Hexameter Translations from Schiller, Göthe, Homer, Callinus, and Meleager, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 199: ↩

  9. 1885, W[illiam] S[chwenck] Gilbert; Arthur Sullivan, composer, * […] The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu*, London: Chappel & Co., […], →OCLC, Act I, page 5: ↩

  10. 1985, Keith M. May, “The Poet-Dramatist: Catiline to Peer Gynt”, in Ibsen and Shaw, Basingstoke, Hampshire: The Macmillan Press, published 1993, →DOI, →ISBN, part I (Ibsen), page 25: ↩

  11. 2008, Katanga A. Bongo, “The Rise of Kam-Aten”, in Civilization and the Ancient Egyptians, Denver, Colo.: Outskirts Press, →ISBN, page 97: ↩

  12. 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Hosea 2:19–20, signature Eeee3, verso, column 2: ↩

  13. 1643, Jer: Burroughes [i.e., Jeremiah Burroughs], “The Eighteenth Lecture. Hosea 2. 19.”, in An Exposition of the Prophesie of Hosea. […], London: […] W. E. and J. G. for R. Dawlman, →OCLC, page 643: ↩

  14. 1720, Elizabeth Bury, “Her Remarks on Her Self at Sacraments, and Covenanting with GOD”, in An Account of the Life and Death of Mrs. Elizabeth Bury, Who Died, May the 11th, 1720. Aged 76. Chiefly Collected out of Her Own Diary. […], Bristol: […] J. Penn, and sold by J. Sprint, […]; and Em. Matthews, […], →OCLC, pages 102–103: ↩

  15. 1726, John Ayliffe, “Of Consecration of Churches, Bishops and the Like”, in Parergon Juris Canonici Anglicani: Or, A Commentary, by Way of Supplement to the Canons and Constitutions of the Church of England. […], London: […] D. Leach, and sold by John Walthoe […], →OCLC, page 195: ↩

  16. 1810, Robert Hawker, “March.— [22.]”, in The Poor Man’s Morning Portion, Being a Selection of a Verse of Scripture, with Short Observations, for Every Day in the Year; […], 3rd edition, London: […] [F] or Thomas Williams, […], by Richard Marks & Co. […], →OCLC, page 85: ↩

  17. 1566, Euripides, “Iocasta: A Tragedie Written in Greke by Euripides, […]”, in George Gascoigne, Francis Kinwelmershe, transl., A Hundreth Sundrie Flowres Bounde up in One Small Poesie. […], London: […] [Henry Bynneman and Henry Middleton for] Richarde Smith, published 1573, →OCLC, Act IIIJ, scene j, page 134: ↩

  18. 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, Much Adoe about Nothing. […], quarto edition, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii], signature B2, verso: ↩

  19. 1670, Izaak Walton, “The Life”, in The Lives of Dr. John Donne, Sir Henry Wotton, Mr. Richard Hooker, Mr. George Herbert. […], volume I, London: […] Tho[mas] Newcomb for Richard Marriott, […], →OCLC, page 14: ↩

  20. 167 [4?] April 4 (date written; Gregorian calendar), N[athaniel] Fairfax, “To the Right Worshipful Sir William Blois, Knight”, in A Treatise of the Bulk and Selvedge of the World. Wherein the Greatness, Littleness and Lastingness of Bodies are Freely Handled. […], London: […] Robert Boulter, […], published 1674, →OCLC, signatures [A7], recto – [A7], verso: ↩

  21. 2022, Rashmi Rangarajan, Samran Daneshfar, quoting Rashmi Rangarajan, “Processing Uncertainty during COVID-19: A Collaborative Autoethnography of Two Stranded International Ph.D. Students”, in Basil Cahusac de Caux, Lynette Pretorius, Luke Macaulay, editors, Research and Teaching in a Pandemic World: The Challenges of Establishing Academic Identities during Times of Crisis, Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore, →DOI, →ISBN, part II (Academic Identity Development amidst Pandemic-induced Loss, Trauma, and Grief), page 48: ↩

  22. “bitreuthen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007. ↩

  23. “bi-, pref. (2)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007. ↩

  24. “treuth, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007. ↩

  25. Joseph Bosworth (1882), “trēowþ”, in T[homas] Northcote Toller, editor, An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 1014, column 2. ↩

  26. Joseph Bosworth (1882), “trēowsian”, in T[homas] Northcote Toller, editor, An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 1014, column 2. ↩

  27. “betroth, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023; “betroth, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022. ↩

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