brother-in-law
See also: brother in law
EnglishEdit
Alternative formsEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Middle English brother-in-lawe; equivalent to brother + -in-law.
PronunciationEdit
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈbɹʌðɚ ɪn ˌlɔ/
- (cot–caught merger, Canada) IPA(key): /ˈbɹʌðɚ ɪn ˌlɑ/
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈbɹʌðəɹ ɪn ˌlɔː/
Audio (US) (file)
NounEdit
brother-in-law (plural brothers-in-law or (archaic) brethren-in-law or (colloquial, nonstandard) brother-in-laws)
- A male relative of one's generation, separated by one degree of marriage:
- (uncommon) Co-brother-in-law: A male relative of one's generation, separated by two degrees of marriage:
- The husband of the sibling of one's spouse.
- 2009 Donal Lowry, "Kettle, Thomas Michael (‘Tom’)", Dictionary of Irish Biography (Cambridge University Press)
- He was appalled by trench conditions and the prolongation of the war, a disillusionment further encouraged by the Easter rising, in which his brother-in-law, Francis Sheehy-Skeffington (qv), was murdered by a deranged Anglo-Irish officer, J. C. Bowen-Colthurst (qv).
- 2009 Donal Lowry, "Kettle, Thomas Michael (‘Tom’)", Dictionary of Irish Biography (Cambridge University Press)
- The brother of the spouse of one's sibling.
- The husband of the sibling of one's spouse.
QuotationsEdit
- c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene iii]:
- We at our own charge shall ransom straight
His brother-in-law, the foolish Mortimer;
Derived termsEdit
Related termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
one's husband's brother
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one's wife's brother
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one's brother's husband
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one's sister's husband
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one's husband's sister's husband
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one's wife's sister's husband
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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ReferencesEdit
- brother-in-law in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- “brother-in-law”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
- "brother-in-law" in Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary (Cambridge University Press, 2007)
- Random House Webster's Unabridged Electronic Dictionary (1987-1996)