as in veil
something that covers or conceals like a piece of cloth
under the coverture of a raging snowstorm, the rebels undertook their surprise attack on the fortress
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
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
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
-
Millie Bobby Brown Millie Bobby Brown wore a silver cowl neck gown paired with a coordinating veil from Annie’s Ibiza.—
Violet Goldstone,
WWD,
1 Mar. 2025
-
Right next to them is a little white porcelain cat, outfitted with a simple lacy wedding veil.—
Michael Cuby,
Them,
26 Feb. 2025
Noun
-
High Fashion Rose Byrne gives us a cloak moment at the premiere of Blue Moon during Berlinale on Feb. 18 in Berlin. City Nights James Marsden celebrates the premiere of Zero Day on Feb. 18 in New York City.—
Alexandra Schonfeld,
People.com,
21 Feb. 2025
-
The show’s iconic red cloak first made its debut back in April 2017 in season one and has since become a global sign of protest in the fight for women’s rights worldwide.—
Jackie Strause,
The Hollywood Reporter,
12 Feb. 2025
Noun
-
Imagery from the Myrtle Beach region Monday morning showed a shroud of smoke enveloping parts of the low-lying terrain and creating a wall of low visibility.—
Dennis Romero,
NBC News,
4 Mar. 2025
-
The launch shroud encasing the uncrewed Progress MS-30 (or Progress 91, as NASA refers to it) resupply spacecraft has been decorated with a logo commemorating the centennial of Pavel Belyayev's birth.—
Robert Z. Pearlman,
Space.com,
27 Feb. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Coverture.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/coverture. Accessed 16 Mar. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share