espouse
/ɪˈspaʊz
/ /ɛˈspaʊz/verb [with object]
1Adopt or support (a cause, belief, or way of life): the left has espoused the causes of sexual and racial equality...
- He espouses the belief that true revolutionaries must anchor their efforts in an act of love of people and of life.
- Boyd espouses the belief that the faculty is there for the purpose of instructing students: politics should not impact the most fundamental and important feature of society.
- I write as a white, Anglo-Saxon male, brought up in the Christian tradition, but currently espousing no religious belief.
Synonyms
adopt, embrace, take up, take to, take to one's heart, receive enthusiastically/wholeheartedly, accept, welcome;
support, back, champion, give help to, help, assist, aid, be on the side of, side with, be in favour of, favour, prefer, abet, aid and abet, encourage;
vote for, ally oneself with, stand behind, fall in with, stand up for, defend, take someone's part, take up the cudgels for;
sponsor, vouch for, promote, further, endorse, advocate, sanction, approve of, give one's blessing to, smile on
informal stick up for, throw one's weight behind
2 archaic Marry: Edward had espoused the lady Grey...
- My father, falling in love with a poor relation, espoused her privately; and I was the first fruit of that marriage.
2.1 (be espoused to) (Of a woman) be engaged to (a particular man): she was secretly espoused to his son, Peter a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph...
- Four years have I been espoused to our gracious King, Alban of Mann.
- Thereafter it happened that the maid who escaped marriage with a lord, came to be espoused to Clovis, son of the former king Dagobert.
Derivatives
espouser
- I'm wary of applying amateur psychology to politics but it is surely the case that the espousers of far-fetched conspiracies, convinced that they need to ‘open our eyes’, succeed only in giving us a window on their own insecurities.
- Thirty years on, they are two of the most well-known espousers of a Western-style Buddhism.
Origin
Late Middle English (in the sense 'take as a spouse'): from Old French espouser, from Latin sponsare, from sponsus 'betrothed', past participle of spondere.