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Definition of Handfast
1. n. Hold; grasp; custody; power of confining or keeping.
2. a. Fast by contract; betrothed by joining hands.
3. v. t. To pledge; to bind; to betroth by joining hands, in order to permit cohabitation, before the celebration of marriage.
4. a. Strong; steadfast.
Definition of Handfast
1. Noun. (obsolete) A hold, grasp; custody, power of confining or keeping. ¹
2. Noun. (obsolete) A contract, agreement, covenant ; specifically betrothal, espousal. ¹
3. Verb. (transitive) To pledge; to bind ¹
4. Verb. (transitive Wicca) To betroth by joining hands, in order to allow cohabitation before the celebration of marriage; to marry provisionally. ¹
5. Adjective. (obsolete) Fast by contract; betrothed by joining hands. ¹
6. Adjective. (rare) Strong; steadfast. ¹
¹ Source: wiktionary.com
Definition of Handfast
1. to grip securely [v -ED, -ING, -S]
Lexicographical Neighbors of Handfast
Literary usage of Handfast
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. A Glossary: Or, Collection of Words, Phrases, Names, and Allusions to by Robert Nares, James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps, Thomas Wright (1901)
"handfast. Hold, custody, confinement. If that shepherd be not in hand-full, let
him fly. ... To handfast. To betroth, to bind by vows of duty. ..."
2. The Wedding Day in All Ages and Countries by Edward J. Wood (1869)
"handfast- ing.— Under the Apron String.— St. Andrew and Marriages.—Orcadian
Marriages.—Manx Marriages. IN' early times in Ireland no marriage ceremony was ..."
3. A Royal Warren = Or, Picturesque Rambles in the Isle of Purbeck by Charles Edmund Newton-Robinson, C E Robinson, Alfred Dawson (1882)
"THE COAST BY handfast POINT AND SOUTHAVEN TO ARNE. ON a wooded hill, standing
just aloof from the shores of the Frome, where it widens to an estuary at the ..."
4. Outlines of Historical Jurisprudence by Paul Vinogradoff (1920)
"one Isobel, who had married the former earl (the father of both claimants) by a
handfast marriage. Troth had been pledged in the presence of witnesses, ..."
5. Catholicon Anglicum: An English-Latin Wordbook, Dated 1483 by Sidney John Hervon Herrtage (1882)
"... mayde which was assured and handfast vnto a noble yonge ... to handfast,
affiance, betroth himselfe unto a maiden.' Cotgrave. ..."
6. Historical Essays in Connexion with the Land, the Church, &c. by Eben William Robertson (1872)
"In its original acceptation the word handfast simply meant a contract of any
sort, though it seems to have baen gradually applied almost exclusively to a ..."
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