one flesh
English
editEtymology
editBiblical phrase, found for example in versions of Genesis 2:24 and Mark 10:8.
Pronunciation
editAudio (General Australian): (file)
Noun
edit- (idiomatic) Two people united by marriage.
- 1840, James Fenimore Cooper, chapter 15, in The Pathfinder:
- "This is reasonable and natural," returned Pathfinder; ". . . A woman would be likely to follow the man to whom she had plighted faith, and husband and wife are one flesh."
- 1875, Lord Alfred Tennyson, Queen Mary: A Drama, act V:
- Mary: Have not I been the fast friend of your life
Since mine began, and it was thought we two
Might make one flesh, and cleave unto each other
As man and wife?
- 1911, John Galsworthy, “A Christian”, in Inn of Tranquility:
- We know Christ's saying of the married that they are one flesh!