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Covenant   /kˈəvənənt/   Listen
noun
Covenant  n.  
1.
A mutual agreement of two or more persons or parties, or one of the stipulations in such an agreement. "Then Jonathan and David made a covenant." "Let there be covenants drawn between us." "If we conclude a peace, It shall be with such strict and severe covenants As little shall the Frenchmen gain thereby."
2.
(Eccl. Hist.) An agreement made by the Scottish Parliament in 1638, and by the English Parliament in 1643, to preserve the reformed religion in Scotland, and to extirpate popery and prelacy; usually called the "Solemn League and Covenant." "He (Wharton) was born in the days of the Covenant, and was the heir of a covenanted house."
3.
(Theol.) The promises of God as revealed in the Scriptures, conditioned on certain terms on the part of man, as obedience, repentance, faith, etc. "I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee."
4.
A solemn compact between members of a church to maintain its faith, discipline, etc.
5.
(Law)
(a)
An undertaking, on sufficient consideration, in writing and under seal, to do or to refrain from some act or thing; a contract; a stipulation; also, the document or writing containing the terms of agreement.
(b)
A form of action for the violation of a promise or contract under seal.
Synonyms: Agreement; contract; compact; bargain; arrangement; stipulation. Covenant, Contract, Compact, Stipulation. These words all denote a mutual agreement between two parties. Covenant is frequently used in a religious sense; as, the covenant of works or of grace; a church covenant; the Solemn League and Covenant. Contract is the word most used in the business of life. Crabb and Taylor are wrong in saying that a contract must always be in writing. There are oral and implied contracts as well as written ones, and these are equally enforced by law. In legal usage, the word covenant has an important place as connected with contracts. A compact is only a stronger and more solemn contract. The term is chiefly applied to political alliances. Thus, the old Confederation was a compact between the States. Under the present Federal Constitution, no individual State can, without consent of Congress, enter into a compact with any other State or foreign power. A stipulation is one of the articles or provisions of a contract.


verb
Covenant  v. t.  To grant or promise by covenant. "My covenant of peace that I covenanted with you."


Covenant  v. i.  (past & past part. covenanted; pres. part. covenanting)  To agree (with); to enter into a formal agreement; to bind one's self by contract; to make a stipulation. "Jupiter covenanted with him, that it should be hot or cold, wet or dry,... as the tenant should direct." "And they covenanted with him for thyrty pieces of silver."
Synonyms: To agree; contract; bargain; stipulate.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Covenant" Quotes from Famous Books



... obey the commands of God on this subject. Marriage is, indeed, the first and most important institution of human existence—the foundation of all civilisation and culture—the root of church and state. It is the most intimate covenant of heart formed among mankind; and for many persons the only relation in which they feel the true sentiments of humanity. It gives scope for every human virtue, since each of these is developed from the love and confidence which here predominate. It unites all which ennobles ...
— Clotel; or, The President's Daughter • William Wells Brown
... sentiment was his famous speech of March 7, 1850, On the Constitution and the Union, which gave so much offense to the extreme Antislavery party, who held with Garrison that a Constitution which protected slavery was "a league with death and a covenant with hell." It is not claiming too much for Webster to assert that the sentences of these and other speeches, memorized and declaimed by thousands of school-boys throughout the North, did as much as any single influence to train up a generation ...
— Brief History of English and American Literature • Henry A. Beers
... the olden days who sought to find security in falsehood, and to construct a sovereignty by the aid of broken covenants. Let me read to you their boasts as it is recorded by the prophet Isaiah: "We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement: when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us, for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves." ...
— Defenders of Democracy • The Militia of Mercy
... intellectuals around Wilson, under the clear eyes of crafty Colonel House, drew up their charter for world government (League of Nations Covenant) and prepared for the brave new socialist one-world to follow World War I. But things went sour at the Paris Peace Conference. They soured even more when constitutionalists in the United States Senate found out what was being planned ...
— The Invisible Government • Dan Smoot
... themselves: the well-known vices of Isaac were rendered still more contemptible by his infirmities, and the young Alexius was hated as an apostate, who had renounced the manners and religion of his country. His secret covenant with the Latins was divulged or suspected; the people, and especially the clergy, were devoutly attached to their faith and superstition; and every convent, and every shop, resounded with the danger of the church and the tyranny ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 6 • Edward Gibbon


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