v. [UN-2 3, 7.]
1. trans. (and refl.). To dissolve the marriage of; to free from the marriage-tie; to divorce.
1530. Palsgr., 768/2. I can unmary my selfe by ronnyng away.
1588. Parke, trans. Mendoza’s Hist. China, 401. He doth vnmarry them, and setteth her at libertie that she may marry with an other.
1637. Shirley, Gamester, I. i. Yes, I did marry you;… I would there were a parson to unmarry us!
1680. Baxter, Answ. Stillingfl., xii. 20. As he that marrieth Persons may not … unmarry them again, save for Adultery.
1760–72. H. Brooke, Fool of Qual. (1809), II. 59. If he does not first unmarry himself, I will never see him any more.
1857. Dickens, Dorrit, II. viii. They are fast married, and can’t be unmarried.
1881. Besant & Rice, Chapl. of Fleet, II. 177. Nothing can unmarry you now.
absol. 1708. O. Dykes, Eng. Prov. & Refl., 7. In fine, an After-Thought cannot unmarry; it cannot set a broken Leg.
b. To put away, to divorce (a wife).
1645. Milton, Tetrach., 49. Is it imaginable there should bee among these … a law giving permissions laxative to unmarry a wife and marry a lust?
1797. Mrs. A. M. Bennett, Beggar Girl (1813), III. 177. Though he did not live with her, he could not unmarry her.
2. intr. To free oneself from marriage.
1635. J. Hayward, trans. Biondi’s Banish’d Virg., 172. Having left her father, and unmarried and remarried againe at her pleasure.
1652. J. Wright, trans. Camus’ Nat. Paradox, X. 244. I marry without injoying my wife, I unmarry, I marry again.
1769. in Priv. Lett. Ld. Malmesbury (1870), I. 172. We are unmarrying among the great; the Duke of Grafton’s divorce was finished this morning.
1839. J. Rogers, Antipopopr., xvi. § 3. 332. Thus people may neither marry nor unmarry without priorly obtaining permission from the priesthood.
1895. How to get Married, 86. Actors marry and unmarry ad libitum in a disgraceful way.
