| 释义 |
ˈhandfasted, ppl. a. Obs. exc. Hist.
[f. handfast v.]
1. Contracted or engaged by joining of hands; betrothed. Also fig. in spiritual sense.
1535Coverdale Deut. xxii. 27 The handfested damsell. 1555L. Saunders in Coverdale Lett. Mart. (1564) 212 We be handfasted vnto hym as the spiritual spouse of so heauenly an husband. 1637Rutherford Lett. (1862) I. 339, I am glad that ye are still handfasted with Christ.
b. (See quots. and handfasting b.)
1820Scott Monast. xxv, She is not my wife, but she is handfasted with me, and that makes her as honest a woman. Ibid., When we are handfasted, as we term it, we are man and wife for a year and a day,—that space gone by, each may choose another mate, or at their pleasure, may call the priest to marry them for life—and this we call handfasting.
†2. With hands firmly grasped, hand in hand.
1592R. D. Hypnerotomachia 12 b, Dauncing in a ring, with theyr armes spred abrode, and hanfasted, man with man and woman with woman. |