Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Handfast

Hand′fast′ (-fȧst′), n. 1. Hold; grasp; custody; power of confining or keeping. [Obs.] Shak.

2. Contract; specifically, espousal. [Obs.]

Hand′fast′, a. Fast by contract; betrothed by joining hands. [Obs.] Bale.

Hand′fast′, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Handfasted; p. pr. & vb. n. Handfasting.] To pledge; to bind; to betroth by joining hands, in order to permit cohabitation, before the celebration of marriage. [Obs.]

Hand′fast′, a. [G. handfest; hand hand + fest strong. See Fast.] Strong; steadfast.[R.] Carlyle.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.