out of wedlock
23
5.3
- idiom
- Formal
:
nacido fuera del matrimonio
- The reform also removed all legal discrimination against children born out of wedlock.
- children out of wedlock
- out of wedlock birth
- born out of wedlock
She ends up having her her first child out of wedlock in revolutionary France.
- She ends up having her her first child out of wedlock in revolutionary France.
- It was down the road when I fathered a child out of wedlock.
- Do you think in the future there will be more children born out of wedlock or fewer?
- But instead, because they made one bad decision and got pregnant out of wedlock and they didn't want to end the relationship, they move forward with it.
- If you really want to harm a child, have a child out of wedlock.
- I remember years ago when I was a kid, someone who would have a child out of wedlock was sometimes looked sideways.
- I saw one stoning where they stoned a young girl to death that had a baby out of wedlock with her cousin or something.
- If a woman has a baby out of wedlock, then all the right wing Christians will know, oh, she's a slut.
Examples
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I remember years ago when I was a kid, someone who would have a child out of wedlock was sometimes looked sideways.
-
Look, people have kids out of wedlock all the time.
-
Today, one out of every four American children is born out of wedlock.
Academic text (1992) -
Large numbers of American children are now born out of wedlock; in many communities, the number is more than half.
Academic text (1996) -
Do you think in the future there will be more children born out of wedlock or fewer?
-
Additionally, the number of children born out of wedlock increased in the homelands.
Academic text (1998) -
Countries with high birthrates, in contrast, usually also have large numbers of children born out of wedlock.
Academic text (2012) -
Of those mothers who did have a child out of wedlock, three-quarters eventually married.
Academic text (1993) -
Among women under age 25, nearly two-thirds of all first births were out-of-wedlock.
Academic text (2002) -
Many people believe that children born out of wedlock face social stigma.
Synonyms
39
6.1
A child or marriage not recognized by law because the parents were not married
11
4.9
A child born to parents who are not married to each other
11
6.5
A child born to parents who are not married to each other
1
9.9
A child born to parents who are not married
1
9.9
A child whose parents are not married to each other
A child born to parents who are not legally married
Born to parents who are not married to each other
A child born to parents who are not married
Born to parents who are not married
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase combines the prepositional phrase 'out of' (meaning outside of) with 'wedlock' (the state of being married), so a learner who knows both constituents can infer 'outside marriage' — i.e. a child born to unmarried parents. This compositional pattern is literal and cross-linguistically common, so the meaning is directly derivable from the parts.
Etymology
Out of wedlock comes from the old word wedlock, which means 'marriage'. It literally means 'outside marriage', so it describes a child born when the parents were 'not married'.