Found 1 items, similar to handfast.
English → English (gcide) Definition: handfast handfast \hand"fast`\, a. [G. handfest; hand hand + fest strong. See Fast.] Strong; steadfast.[R.] --Carlyle. [1913 Webster] handfast \hand"fast`\ (h[a^]nd"f[.a]st`), n. 1. Hold; grasp [Obs.] --Shak. [1913 Webster] 2. Custody; power of confining or keeping. [Obs.] --Shak. [1913 Webster] 3. A contract; specifically, an espousal. [Obs.] [1913 Webster] handfast \hand"fast`\, a. Fast by contract; betrothed by joining hands. [Obs.] --Bale. [1913 Webster] handfast \hand"fast`\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. handfasted; p. pr. & vb. n. handfasting.] 1. To pledge; to bind. [Obs.] [1913 Webster] 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.] [1913 Webster +PJC] 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. [Century Dict. 1906.]