arranged

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of arrange.

   He arranged the flowers in a tall glass vase.

   The conference was arranged several weeks in advance.

   Note

   One spelling does two jobs. As a simple past it stands alone (she arranged the chairs). As a past participle it follows have or forms the passive (the meeting was arranged). Every meaning of arrange travels with it: setting things in order, planning ahead, and the musician's sense of adapting a written piece, as in a song arranged for strings. Before marriage, it hardens into the matchmaking adjective.

2. 2
   adjective

   Of a marriage or match, decided by family members or others rather than by the couple themselves.

   Her grandparents had an arranged marriage that lasted fifty years.

   Arranged unions remain common in several cultures around the world.

   Note

   An adjective that has settled on one subject: marriage, along with its near-equivalents match and union. It does not grade. A marriage is arranged or it is not, never more arranged. The line blurs with the past participle when a doer is named. A marriage arranged by her parents is the verb at work, while an arranged marriage names the custom itself.

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