vow
noun/vaʊ/
/vaʊ/
- a formal and serious promise, especially a religious one, to do something
- to make/take a vow
- to break/keep a vow
- to break your marriage vows
- Nuns take a vow of chastity.
Collocations Marriage and divorceMarriage and divorceRomance- fall/be (madly/deeply/hopelessly) in love (with somebody)
- be/believe in/fall in love at first sight
- be/find true love/the love of your life
- suffer (from) (the pains/pangs of) unrequited love
- have/feel/show/express great/deep/genuine affection for somebody/something
- meet/marry your husband/wife/partner/fiancé/fiancée/boyfriend/girlfriend
- have/go on a (blind) date
- be going out with/(especially North American English) dating a guy/girl/boy/man/woman
- move in with/live with your boyfriend/girlfriend/partner
- get/be engaged/married/divorced
- arrange/plan a wedding
- have a big wedding/a honeymoon/a happy marriage
- have/enter into an arranged marriage
- call off/cancel/postpone your wedding
- invite somebody to/go to/attend a wedding/a wedding ceremony/a wedding reception
- conduct/perform a wedding ceremony
- exchange rings/wedding vows/marriage vows
- congratulate/toast/raise a glass to the happy couple
- be/go on honeymoon (with your wife/husband)
- celebrate your first (wedding) anniversary
- be unfaithful to/(informal) cheat on your husband/wife/partner/fiancé/fiancée/boyfriend/girlfriend
- have an affair (with somebody)
- break off/end an engagement/a relationship
- break up with/split up with/ (informal) dump your boyfriend/girlfriend/partner
- separate from/be separated from/leave/divorce your husband/wife/partner
- annul/dissolve a marriage
- apply for/ask for/go through/get a divorce
- get/gain/be awarded/have/lose custody of the children
- pay alimony/child support (to your ex-wife/husband/partner)
Extra ExamplesTopics Life stagesc1- He took a lifelong vow of celibacy.
- Nothing will persuade me to break this vow.
- She decided to leave the convent before taking her final vows.
- She kept her vow of silence until she died.
- The couple exchanged vows at the altar.
- a vow of poverty
- As a priest he had taken a vow of celibacy.
- She made a vow never to speak to him again.
- She would not be unfaithful to her marriage vows.
- The monks take a vow of silence.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- solemn
- marriage
- wedding
- …
- make
- take
- keep
- …
- vow of
- a vow of celibacy
- a vow of chastity
- a vow of silence
- …
Word OriginMiddle English: from Old French vou, from Latin votum ‘a vow, wish’, from vovere ‘to vow’; the verb is from Old French vouer.Definitions on the go
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