v. Forms: 1 wifian, (3 wifue), 3–6 wyue (-ve), 3–7 wiue, 7– wive. [OE. wífian (= MLG., MDu. wîven), f. wíf WIFE sb.]
1. intr. († rarely refl.) To take a wife, get married, marry. Const. † on (o), with. Also occas. with it.
c. 888. K. Ælfred, Boeth., xi. § 1. Maniʓe habbað ʓenoʓ ʓesælilice ʓewifod.
c. 1000. Ælfric’s Canons, vii. in Thorpe, Laws (1840), II. 346. He ne moste on wydewum wifiʓan.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 308. Judas … wiuede o Thamar.
a. 1225. Juliana, 12. Ȝef þat he … ne schal wiuen on me, wiue þer his wil is.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 1588. Quad rebecca to hire were, Esau wifuede us to dere.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 6459. Þo adde hii boþe iwiued wel.
c. 1320. Sir Tristr., 2896. To wiue on our kinde.
1340. Ayenb., 225. Zaynte paul … zayþ to wodewon, ‘huo þet guod is, he him hyealde ine þet stat; and yef hit him naȝt ne lykeþ, he him wyui.’
c. 1386. Chaucer, Clerk’s T., 117. Ther as myn herte is set ther wol I wyue.
c. 1460. Wisdom, 666, in Macro Plays, 57. Wndyrstondynge. We haue þat nedyt vs, so thryve I; Wyll. And yff þat I care, neuer wyve I.
1546. J. Heywood, Prov., I. xi. 28. It is harde to wiue and thryue bothe in a yere.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., I. ii. 56. I haue thrust my selfe into this maze, Happily to wiue and thriue, as best I may. Ibid., 75. I come to wiue it wealthily in Padua.
1606. Marston, Parasit., V. H 4. Goe thy waies & wiue with whome thou wilt for my part.
1774. Johnson, To Mrs. Thrale, 17. All who wisely wish to wive.
1817. Byron, Beppo, xcii. With any other women did you wive?
1876. Hardy, Ethelberta, xxvii. Encouraging Neigh in his resolve to wive.
2. To be a wife, act as a wife. Also with it. rare.
1583. Melbancke, Philotimus, E j b. Were it not very absurd … for maides being scarse borne, to begin to bride it, and say in so doing they woulde learne to wiue it?
1639. [see WIVING ppl. a.].
1891. C. E. Norton, Dante’s Hell, i. 100. Many are the animals with which she [sc. a she-wolf] wives [orig. a cui sammoglia].
3. trans. To take to wife, make one’s wife, marry, wed a woman); pa. pple. made or become a wife, married (to a man).
1592. Warner, Alb. Eng., VII. xxxv. 152. He wyu’d a Lady passing faire.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., I. ii. 145. I had rather hee should shriue me then wiue me.
1676. Hobbes, Odyssey, II. 203. Many other ladies we could wive.
1848–9. Lytton, K. Arthur, II. lxv. ‘Wived to my son, the witch will soon be steady!’ ‘Wived to your son?—she is a wife already!’
1862. Meredith, Modern Love, xxxv. It is no vulgar nature I have wived.
1898. E. P. Evans, Evol. Ethics, i. 52. The Magians continued to wive their sisters in conformity to ancient usage.
4. To furnish with a wife, obtain a wife for; to marry to a wife: chiefly in pa. pple. married (of a man). Obs. or arch.
1513. More, Rich. III. (1883), 61. Smal pleasure taketh a man of al that euer he hath beside, yf he bee wiued against his appetite.
1583. Melbancke, Philotimus, X iij b. They are euill horsed, and worse wiued, that ride on coltes & marrie younge giglittes.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., I. ii. 61. I bought him in Paules, and hee’l buy mee a horse in Smithfield. If I could get mee a wife in the Stewes, I were Mann’d, Hors’d, and Wiu’d. Ibid. (1604), Oth., II. i. 60. Mon. … Is your Generall wiu’d? Cassio. Most fortunately: he hath atchieu’d a Maid That paragons description. Ibid. (1608), Per., V. ii. 10. He is promisde to be wiued To faire Marina.
1670. Milton, Hist. Eng., III. Wks. 1851, V. 113. She … won so much upon his fancy, though already wiv’d, as to demand her in mariage.
1816. Crabbe, Flirtation, 372. His craft contrived To get the Priest with expedition wived.
1820. Scott, Monast., xxxvii. I promise you … that young Bennygask shall be richly wived.
1851. W. B. MacCabe, Bertha, III. xiv. 376. I [Henry] can do more strange things than unwive myself, and wive you.
† b. with it: To obtain a wife for. Obs. rare.
1608. J. Day, Humour out of Breath, I. i. B 3. Oct. … Ile one day get A husband for thee…. Flo. … Wiue it for them [sc. my brothers], you shall not husband me.
5. To become the wife of, marry (a man; also transf. of an animal). Obs. or arch.
1621. G. Sandys, Ovid’s Met., IX. (1626), 175. So haue I seene two Buls together close; The fairest Cow in all the pasture chose To wiue the Victor.
1812. Crabbe, Tales, xii. 283. Served by that Villain—by this Fury wived—What fate is mine!
6. fig. To ‘wed,’ unite, couple. rare.
1886. Lowell, Latest Lit. Ess., Gray (1891), 2. The thoughts, wived with words above their own level.
Hence Wived ppl. a.
1633. Costlie Whore, IV. end. He shalbe intombed with a wived maid.
1876. Encycl. Brit., V. 293/2. Gregory VII. … determined … that no wived priest should celebrate or even assist at the Mass.
