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noun

Coverture n.

Covering; shelter; defense; hiding. "Protected by walls or other like coverture." "Beatrice, who even now Is couched in the woodbine coverture."

(Law) The condition of a woman during marriage, because she is considered under the cover, influence, power, and protection of her husband, and therefore called a feme covert, or femme couverte.

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Etymology of 'Coverture'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Coverture" Quotes from Famous Books

... England. He came from Swanswick, near Bath. After a few years' residence in New York he met and married Anne Hyde, the daughter of Edward Hyde, royal governor of North Carolina. She subsequently became the heiress of Hyde, in England, in her own right, and by the old English law of coverture, George Clarke became the owner of the estate. The lady died during his term of office as governor of the colony, and was buried, with a public funeral, in the vault of Lord Cornburg in Trinity church, ...

— The Story of Cooperstown • Ralph Birdsall

... law of husband and wife, as you gather it from the books, is a disgrace to any civilized nation. The theory of the law degrades the wife almost to the level of slaves. When a woman marries, we call her condition coverture, and speak of her as a femme covert. The old writers call the husband baron, and sometimes in plain English, lord.... The merging of her name in that of her husband is emblematic of the fate of all her legal rights. The torch of Hymen serves but ...

— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage

... helpmate, partner. Associated Words: uxoricide, uxorious, uxoriousness, coverture, dowry, polygamy, polygamist, monogamy, ...

— Putnam's Word Book • Louis A. Flemming