Find the word definition

Crossword clues for espouse

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
espouse
verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
cause
▪ And there was the great Lord Byron, a powerful name, a man well known to espouse the cause of freedom.
▪ Y., so eager to espouse other causes, has thus far been uncharacteristically low key and ineffective.
▪ They were believed to have sprung from the ranks of alienated youths who had espoused ultra-right-wing political causes.
policy
▪ On the other hand Tsongas, another centrist sceptical of big government, espoused an industrial policy which distanced him from Clinton.
▪ Where a country espouses outward-looking policies, it may continue to behave in many important respects as though it were still domestically focused.
principle
▪ A moderate conservative, Bush espouses the principles of limited government.
view
▪ The allegation is dangerous and insulting to Morrissey, especially when you consider that he has never publicly espoused racist views.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Followers of the sect espouse pure love and nonviolence.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ He did not espouse a theory of contingent duties vesting subsequently to careless acts.
▪ It has been rhetorically espoused by politicians and sceptically analysed by academics.
▪ This was the credo that Church himself espoused as a landscape artist.
▪ Under any such setup, voters elect a leader who espouses a program.
▪ Until recently women have had a struggle to get the unions to espouse their interests.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Espouse

Espouse \Es*pouse"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Espoused; p. pr. & vb. n. Espousing.] [OF. espouser, esposer, F. ['e]pouser, L. sponsare to betroth, espouse, fr. sponsus betrothed, p. p. of spondere to promise solemnly or sacredly. Cf. Spouse.]

  1. To betroth; to promise in marriage; to give as spouse.

    A virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph.
    --Luke i. 27.

  2. To take as spouse; to take to wife; to marry.

    Lavinia will I make my empress, . . . And in the sacred Pantheon her espouse.
    --Shak.

  3. To take to one's self with a view to maintain; to make one's own; to take up the cause of; to adopt; to embrace. ``He espoused that quarrel.''
    --Bacon.

    Promised faithfully to espouse his cause as soon as he got out of the war.
    --Bp. Burnet.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
espouse

mid-15c., "to take as spouse, marry," from Old French espouser "marry, take in marriage, join in marriage" (11c., Modern French épouser), from Latin sponsare, past participle of spondere "make an offering, perform a rite, promise secretly," hence "to engage oneself by ritual act" (see spondee). Extended sense of "adopt, embrace" a cause, party, etc., is from 1620s. Related: Espoused; espouses; espousing. For initial e-, see e-.

Wiktionary
espouse

vb. 1 (context transitive English) To become/get married to. 2 (context transitive English) To accept, support, or take on as one’s own (an idea or a cause).

WordNet
espouse
  1. v. choose and follow; as of theories, ideas, policies, strategies or plans; "She followed the feminist movement"; "The candidate espouses Republican ideals" [syn: adopt, follow]

  2. take in marriage [syn: marry, get married, wed, conjoin, hook up with, get hitched with]

  3. take up the cause, ideology, practice, method, of someone and use it as one's own; "She embraced Catholocism"; "They adopted the Jewish faith" [syn: embrace, adopt, sweep up]

Usage examples of "espouse".

From an early date Congress has acted upon the interpretation espoused by Hamilton.

Sir Geoffrey Boleyn, who had been mayor of London, had espoused one of the daughters and coheirs of Lord Hastings.

Karma would, it was reasoned by Mack and his associates, weigh heavily with a jury not only because it came from a white, grass-roots, eminently credentialled American, but because it was also the faith he personally practised and espoused.

Johnson evidently set out with the full intention not merely of retaining the Cabinet of his predecessor, not merely of co-operating with the party which elected him, but of espousing the principles of its radical, progressive, energetic section.

When, however, Queen Victoria ascended the throne, they eagerly declared their emancipation from the thraldom of an hostile court, and they proclaimed that the young queen had entered warmly into their views, and had espoused their political creed without reservation.

George Thompson, the celebrated anti-slavery lecturer, espoused their cause with great ardour.

The cause of the shipowners was espoused by the landlords, and among them the Earl of Derby was the most prominent.

No orator had espoused with more seeming heartiness various liberal opinions, which he abandoned when he became a pet of the Whigs.

Moubrays, by which he was allied to the throne, he had espoused a daughter of the duke of Buckingham, who was descended by a female from Edward III.

Margaret, married to Alan, lord of Galloway, Isabella, wife of Robert Brus or Bruce lord of Annandale, and Adama, who espoused Henry, Lord Hastings.

She also bore him eleven daughters, most of whom died in their infancy: of the surviving, Joan was married first to the earl of Glocester, and after his death to Ralph de Monthermer: Margaret espoused John, duke of Brabant: Elizabeth espoused first John, earl of Holland, and afterwards the earl of Hereford: Mary was a nun at Ambresbury.

The duke of Lancaster, who espoused in second marriage the eldest daughter of Peter, inherited only the empty title of that sovereignty, and, by claiming the succession, increased the animosity of the new king of Castile against England.

Isabella, Joan, Mary, and Margaret, who espoused, in the order of their names, Ingelram de Coucy, earl of Bedford, Alphonso, king of Castile, John of Mountfort, duke of Brittany, and John Hastings, earl of Pembroke.

In a few days after, he espoused the Princess Catharine: he carried his father-in-law to Paris, and put himself in possession of that capital: he obtained from the parliament and the three estates a ratification of the treaty of Troye: he supported the duke of Burgundy in procuring a sentence against the murderers of his father: and he immediately turned his arms with success against the adherents of the dauphin, who, as soon as he heard of the treaty of Troye, took on him the style and authority of regent, and appealed to God and his sword for the maintenance of his title.

Anne, the sister of the last earl of Marche, having espoused the earl of Cambridge, beheaded in the reign of Henry V.