honest woman
6
9.1
- noun
- Archaic
:
mujer honesta
- You're making an honest woman out of Eva, and a man out of yourself.
- make an honest woman
Examples
-
Make an honest woman out of you.
-
"I'll make an honest woman of her."
Fiction book (1992) -
Make an honest woman out of me.
-
Let me make an honest woman of you, even if you are a lawyer.
Fiction book (1999) -
So you finally went and made an honest woman of her, huh, Bonecrusher?
-
If you want to stop feeling dishonest, Reub, try making an honest woman out of her.
Fiction book (1999) -
But he's not supposed to be doing that anymore because he made an honest woman out of Paula.
Blog text (3) -
She stated that she was "offended" when Mr. Abbott told her to "make an honest woman of herself."
Blog text (13) -
Why don't you make an honest woman out of that adorable girlfriend of yours?" O'Rourke had been hearing it from everyone lately, but he was in no position to get married.
Fiction book (1999) -
Are you ready to make an honest woman of your fiancée before the baby arrives?
Surface Forms
Morphology
A B1 learner who knows 'honest' and 'woman' will most likely interpret 'honest woman' literally as a morally upright woman, but the idiomatic use in 'make an honest woman (of her)' means to marry her (often to legitimate a pregnancy), which is not derivable from the constituents. The idiomatic, euphemistic and partly archaic meaning is culture-specific and unpredictable, so learners cannot infer it from the words alone.
Etymology
Honest woman comes from an old idea that a woman was not seen as 'respectable' unless she was married. If a man married her he would 'make her an honest woman' by giving her respect in society, so the phrase now means 'to marry a woman he had been living with', often after pregnancy.