Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of coverture While Northern women were trapped in coverture, Southern states were bypassing coverture specifically for the purpose of giving married women rights to own enslaved people. Trevon Logan, The Conversation, 10 June 2024 Heavenly Mother, according to our own doctrine, can’t be some wilting Victorian flower shrinking under the protective coverture of a strong man. The Salt Lake Tribune, 7 May 2022 The famous legal scholar William Blackstone had interpreted coverture rather strictly in the 1760s, and the American Revolution did nothing to change that. Washington Post, 25 Feb. 2022 That started to change by about the 18th century, when coverture laws—which counted wives as legal property of their husbands—grew more entrenched in Britain, and evolved to effectively forbid women from owning land at all. Michael Waters, The Atlantic, 27 Oct. 2021 In the nascent American Republic, where some humans could vote and most others were in coverture to their voting husbands or were the property of those men, the notion of majority representation was corrupted a priori. Shannon Pufahl, The New York Review of Books, 21 Apr. 2020 Coverture also meant that a man had largely unrestrained access to his wife’s body. Elizabeth Weingarten, The Atlantic, 15 June 2017 The answer partially lies in the practices of coverture, embedded in the old law of domestic relations that American colonists inherited from the British and didn’t change after the Revolution. Elizabeth Weingarten, The Atlantic, 15 June 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for coverture
Noun
  • The exclusion of frill makes these unfussy bridal gowns ideal for accessorizing with a piece of special jewelry or a statement veil.
    Sarah Zendejas, Vogue, 6 Apr. 2025
  • There’s the requisite shot of a perfect toro nigiri, a thin veil of soy sauce glistening on top, or a close-up of a minimalist ceramic vase.
    Elena Clavarino, Air Mail, 5 Apr. 2025
Noun
  • The shrubs also host the larvae of 18 kinds of butterflies and moths, including eastern tiger swallowtail and mourning cloak butterflies.
    Beth Botts, Chicago Tribune, 29 Mar. 2025
  • Designed by master perfumer Jacques Cavallier, the luxe fragrance cloaks Chinese white teas in notes inspired by a botanical garden.
    Jenny Berg, Allure, 25 Mar. 2025
Noun
  • Before Lavin’s death shrouds the season’s homestretch in grief, the best dramatic beats come from Bomer, whose character gets some sweet scenes with a closeted young Mormon and one solid episode featuring Billie Lourd as Jerry’s long-estranged daughter.
    Daniel Fienberg, HollywoodReporter, 27 Mar. 2025
  • Scientists have known since the 1990s that complex processes taking place in Earth's atmosphere because of climate change could reduce the density of the upper layers of the planet's gaseous shroud.
    Tereza Pultarova, Space.com, 17 Mar. 2025

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Coverture.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/coverture. Accessed 15 Apr. 2025.

More from Merriam-Webster on coverture

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!