espouse

verb
/ɪˈspaʊz/UK/ɪˈspaʊs/

Etymology

From Middle English espousen, borrowed from Old French espouser, from Latin spōnsāre (frequentative of spondeō), from Proto-Indo-European *spend-.

  1. derived from *spend-
  2. derived from spōnsō
  3. derived from espouser
  4. inherited from espousen

Definitions

  1. To marry.

    • For I am iealous ouer you with godly iealousie, for I haue espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
    • Now the birth of Iesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Ioseph (before they came together) shee was found with childe of the holy Ghost.
    • Philip and Henry terminated hostilities by a mutual restitution of all places taken during the course of the war; and Philip espoused the princess Elizabeth, eldest daughter of France, formerly betrothed to his son Don Carlos.
  2. To accept, support, or take on as one’s own (an idea or a cause).

    • Although Dowty’s proposal is attractive from the point of view of the alternative argument linking theory that I am espousing, since it eschews the use of thematic roles and thematic role hierarchies, […], but it still has some drawbacks.
    • Those that espoused this ideology […]
    • Among those leavers who believe Brexit has not gone well, many blame politicians for handling it badly – a narrative espoused by the former Ukip leader Nigel Farage, who recently claimed that “Brexit has failed”.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at espouse. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01espouse02support03aid04helper05domestic06farm07tract08connected09friend10spouse

A definitional loop anchored at espouse. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

10 hops · closes at espouse

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA