espouser


Also found in: Thesaurus, Wikipedia.

es·pouse

 (ĭ-spouz′)
tr.v. es·poused, es·pous·ing, es·pous·es
1. To adhere to or advocate: espoused a contrarian viewpoint.
2.
a. To take in marriage; marry.
b. To give (a woman) in marriage.

[Middle English espousen, to marry, from Old French espouser, from Latin spōnsāre, frequentative of spondēre, to betroth; see spend- in Indo-European roots.]

es·pous′er n.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Mentioned in ?
References in periodicals archive ?
Awkwardly enough, however, he was an early espouser of many views that now count as progressive.
Michael Ierodiaconou was a maths teacher at the English School -- though also a big reader of books and espouser of left-wing-liberal, anti-nationalist political ideas, both of which rubbed off on his daughter; her parents were "multicultural before the term was invented", says Andriana, and their retirement flat (located, not coincidentally perhaps, down the road from the school where her dad worked his whole life) is awash in books, paintings and assorted objets d'art.
For someone who espouser leadership by example, catching anyone in a press conference with all cameras trained on him defies logic.
Et vouloit espouser celle quil avoit fiancee, dont il fut accuse et finableraent decapite, comme dit estC (Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris sous le regne de Francois 1er (1515-1536).
it would take at least twenty four hours to read it Even an eager espouser of Shaseibun like me must confess that it is a feat which a cat etui by no means perform." (Natsume 1961.
ISLAMABAD, February 22, 2012 (Frontier Star): Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani Tuesday underscored the need of high level exchanges between Pakistan and China especially among the youth so that they become the espouser of the excellent diplomatic legacy spreading over more than sixty years.
ISLAMABAD, February 22, 2012 (Balochistan Times): Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani Tuesday underscored the need of high level exchanges between Pakistan and China especially among the youth so that they become the espouser of the excellent diplomatic legacy spreading over more than sixty years.
Cee Lo Green to read, should CHAT Norton Show (BBC One Wales, 10.35pm) week Graham will be joined on the by - HMS Customs allowing - rapper and vocal espouser of the 'funny Dog.
"For Walcott, the espouser of hybridity," Cartelli writes--and, we may add, for Soyinka--"the tension ['between the different and the same, the general and the specific, the global and the local'] is fertile and creative, and leads as much from margin to center as from center to margin." (21)
"While praising Higginson's (usually overruled) wish to promote Dickinson's poetry in its original form, this excellent biographer also reveals a bolder, stronger man than the feeble espouser of good causes devotees of Dickinson have been encouraged to despise.
The surgeon in question is instructed: 'si vous la voulez espouser, et qu'elle le veuille, nous ferons qu'elle vous advancera grandement selon ses moyens; vous l'espouseriez, et puis apres la penseriez' (p.