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wedding license

wedding license

1 2.6
An official paper that allows two people to marry
  • noun
  • /ˈwɛdɪŋ ˈlaɪsəns/
  • Formal
translation icon : licencia de matrimonio
  • And a neighbor named Quick, who was first on the scene, found the half-drawn pistol in Thorpe's hand; and a week after the brief account was printed in the Memphis papers, a woman appeared in Frenchman's Bend who claimed to be Thorpe's wife, and with a wedding license to prove it, trying to claim any money or property he might have left.
  • sign the wedding license

You can get there wedding licence in the hotel, right?

Examples

  • Before they got married, they had to apply for a wedding license at the local courthouse.

  • You can get there wedding licence in the hotel, right?

  • I don't think that a Catholic priest will perform a wedding ceremony unless you bring him a wedding license.

    Blog text (9)
  • He required notification and a fee before non-Anglicans could ring their own church bell and charged fees for their wedding licenses.

    Academic text (2010)
  • To make their marriage official, the couple brought their wedding license to the ceremony.

  • In many states, a wedding license must be obtained at least a day before the wedding date.

Synonyms

marriage license
vswedding license
  • Formal
24 2.8

An official paper from the government that allows two people to marry

has identical legal meaning but is the other common expression

How Official

wedding license
  • Formal
1 2.6

Surface Forms

Morphology

wedding + license

The meaning 'an official document granting legal permission for two people to marry' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'wedding' (marriage event) with 'license' (legal authorization); the noun+noun composition follows a standard semantic pattern. This concept and construction are common across languages and would be immediately understandable to a B1 learner who knows both constituent words.

Etymology

Wedding license comes from the idea that a written license gave official 'permission' for a wedding, so the paper showed the couple could legally marry. That's why today a wedding license means the legal paper that lets two people marry.