| Definitions | | handfast |
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noun
- (obsolete) Hold; grasp; custody; power of confining or keeping.
- (obsolete) Contract; specifically, espousal.
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verb
- (transitive) To pledge; to bind; to betroth by joining hands, in order to allow cohabitation, before the celebration of marriage; to marry provisionally.
- (1820) When we are handfasted, as we term it, we are man and wife for a year and a day; that space gone by, each may choose another mate, or, at their pleasure, may call the priest to marry them for life; and this we call handfasting. - Sir Walter Scott, The Monastery
adjective
- (obsolete) Fast by contract; betrothed by joining hands.
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