brides

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of bride.

   Both brides wore gowns handed down from their grandmothers.

   The two brides posed together for photographs after the double ceremony.

   Note

   The everyday plural, but not the only thing the spelling carries. Lacemakers use brides for the small loops or similar ties that connect the patterns in a piece of lace, so in a needlework manual the word names threads, not women. The same letters also spell the verb form. As a noun, brides is counted and takes a plural verb: the brides were radiant.

2. 2
   verbobsolete

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of bride.

   Note

   A form of a verb that has fallen out of use: to bride someone once meant to make a bride of her, and that meaning is now obsolete. Brides goes with a single subject (the custom brides a daughter), but in modern prose it reads as deliberate archaism. Ordinary writing will usually reach for another verb, and most readers will first take the spelling as the plural noun.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2