Definition of "handfast" []

• Archaic A handclasp used to signify a pledge, such as a contract or marriage. (noun)

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.

• "It seemed he had been married twice before, in a manner of speaking: he had been "handfast" to Janet Beaton, and had lived in common-law marriage with the Norwegian woman."
• "He wanted her to handfast with him so that he could protect her from the Cursed Ones."
• "I gave the following quote: In the deliciously epic Bitter Night, Diana Pharaoh Francis has married the Charles de Lint-style old school urban fantasy to the new college of asskickery in a pagan-pirate handfast."