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Handfast   Listen
verb
handfast  v. t.  (past & past part. handfasted; pres. part. handfasting)  
1.
To pledge; to bind. (Obs.)
2.
To betroth by joining hands, in order to permit cohabitation, before the formal celebration of marriage; in some parts of Scotland it was in effect to marry provisionally, permitting cohabitation for a year, after which the marriage could be formalized or dissolved. (Obs.) Note: Handfasting was a simple contract of agreement under which cohabitation was permitted for a year, at the end of which time the contract could be either dissolved or made permanent by a formal marriage. Such marriages, at first probably not intended to be temporary, are supposed to have originated in Scotland from a scarcity of clergy, and to have existed at times in other countries.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48







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