handfast

• POS: Noun, Verb (transitive)
• HYPHEN: hand=fast

CIDE DICTIONARY

handfast, n. 

•  Hold; grasp  Shak.  [1913 Webster]
•  Custody; power of confining or keeping.  Shak.  [1913 Webster]
•  A contract; specifically, an espousal.  [1913 Webster]

handfast, a. 

 Fast by contract; betrothed by joining hands.  Bale.  [1913 Webster]

handfast, v. t. 

•  To pledge; to bind.  [1913 Webster]
•  To betroth by joining hands, in order to permit cohabitation, before the formal celebration of marriage; in some parts of Scotland it was in effect to marry provisionally, permitting cohabitation for a year, after which the marriage could be formalized or dissolved.  [1913 Webster]

  " Handfasting was a simple contract of agreement under which cohabitation was permitted for a year, at the end of which time the contract could be either dissolved or made permanent by a formal marriage. Such marriages, at first probably not intended to be temporary, are supposed to have originated in Scotland from a scarcity of clergy, and to have existed at times in other countries."  [Century Dict. 1906.]

handfast, a. [G. handfest; hand hand + fest strong. See Fast.].

 Strong; steadfast.  Carlyle.  [1913 Webster]

ROGET THESAURUS

handfast

Marriage

VB marry, wive, take to oneself a wife, be married, be spliced, go off, pair off, wed, espouse, get hitched, lead to the hymeneal altar, take 'for better for worse', give one's hand to, bestow one's hand upon, marry, join, handfast, couple, tie the nuptial knot, give away, give away in marriage, seal, ally, affiance, betroth, publish the banns, bid the banns, be asked in church.