Word.ws English Dictionary

taking a wife

taking a wife is the present participle and gerund of take a wife.

Meaning of take a wife

Verb

take a wife (third-person singular simple present takes a wife, present participle taking a wife, simple past took a wife, past participle taken a wife)

  1. (dated, idiomatic, typically of a man) To marry a woman.
    • For quotations using this term, see Citations:take a wife.

Questions about taking a wife

What is taking a wife the present participle and gerund of?
Taking a wife is the present participle and gerund of take a wife.

Words near taking a wife in the dictionary

  1. taking a walk
  2. taking a walkout powder
  3. taking a whack at
  4. taking a whiz
  5. taking a wicket
  6. taking a wife
  7. taking a wiz
  8. taking a wizz
  9. taking a wrong turn at Albuquerque
  10. taking aback
  11. taking account of

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: taking a wife (page history and authors); take a wife (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “taking a wife.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/taking_a_wife. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.