Definition of "wedlock" []

• The state of being married; matrimony. (noun)
• Out of wedlock Of parents not legally married to each other: born out of wedlock. (idiom)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "In fact — ­figure it out for yourself — ­they were actually married, by a Church of England dominie, and living in wedlock, about the same moment that you were squalling your first post-birth squalls in this world."
• "In return, he craved my antecedents and residence, pried into my private life, insolently demanded how many children had I and did I live in wedlock, and asked divers other unseemly and degrading questions."
• "Having extra marital affairs out of wedlock is a way of promoting family values, according to the Republican dictionary."