Wed"lock (?), n. [AS. wedlac a pledge, be trothal; wedd a pledge + lac a gift, an offering. See Wed, n., and cf. Lake, v. i., Knowledge.]
1. The ceremony, or the state, of marriage; matrimony. "That blissful yoke . . . that men clepeth [call] spousal, or wedlock."
Chaucer.
For what is wedlock forced but a hell,
An age of discord or continual strife?
Shak.
2. A wife; a married woman. [Obs.]
B. Jonson.
Syn. -- See Marriage.
© Webster 1913.
Wed"lock, v. t. To marry; to unite in marriage; to wed. [R.] "Man thus wedlocked."
Milton.
© Webster 1913. | 
